- Partition: The Long Shadow
- Round - Table in Berlin " China and India in the ( World) economy"
- Power Point Presentation Download Workshop 25.-26.3.3008 
- Workshop: Trade Liberalization Policies & FTAs
- Lecture: The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
- 5th Lecture in Partition Series: The Case of Ladakh
- Lecture: Hitting Climate Where It Hurts
- Lecture: Climate Change
- Seminar: Contested Space and Identity in the Indian Northeast

21.08.2008
                                                        

 Partition : The Long Shadow - Closing Events

Partition: The Long Shadow'- a series of dialogues and lectures, organized jointly by the Zubaan Books, Heinrich Böll Foundation, the India Habitat Centre and Max Muller Bhavan, has been running since August of 2007. Comprising of a series of lectures on hitherto unexplored aspects of Partition, the programme has sought to take the debate on the long legacies of Partition forward, and to look at how the three countries, India, Pakistan And Bangladesh, have been impacted by this. The Programme will feature.  
Partition Dastans by Anusha Rizvi, Danish Husain and Mahmood Farooqui,
Building upon pervious Dastangoi presentations on partition, the performers focus on the experiences of Indian Muslims to bring alive untold stories: of those who wished to return but could not, those who wanted to stay but were forced out, those who belong not to maps or boundaries but to South Asia as a whole.

Partition Poetry Brief readings by poets and writers,

Songs of Connectivity Madan Gopal Singh and Musicians.

Thursday, 21.08.2008, Venue: Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 7:00pm

13.08.2008
Partition-The Long Shadow: "Partition and Dalits"

Heinrich Böll Foundation, Max Mueller Bhavan, India Habitat Centre and Zubaan are pleased to present the next lecture in their series "Partition: The Long Shadow". Dr Ramnarayan Rawat will deliver a lecture on "Partition and Dalits". Dr Ramnarayan Rawat is a historian with a focus on modern South Asia at the Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania. His areas of research concern the social, culture and economic history of colonial and postcolonial India. He is particularly interested in histories of colonialism and nationalism. His research and teaching also address the following themes: postcolonial studies, subaltern studies,Dalit ("untouchable") and lower caste movement, history of South Asia, race in India, the United States, and Brazil, and South Asian religious.

Wednesday, 13.08.2008, Venue: Casurina Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 6:30pm

>>To read the short abstract please click here.

29.07.2008
Partition: The Long Shadow " Imaging Dislocations" 
 
Heinrich Böll Foundation, Max Mueller Bhavan, India Habitat Centre and Zubaan are pleased to present the next lecture in their series "Partition: The Long Shadow". Nilima Sheikh will deliver a lecture on  " Imaging Dislocation" Nilima Sheikh was born in 1945 in New Delhi. She studied history at the Delhi University (1962-65) and painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (MFA, 1971). She taught painting at the Faculty between 1977 and 1981. Nilima Sheikh held her first solo exhibition in New Delhi in 1983, and has shown her work widely since then. Her parctice has embraced various kinds of painting, from the hand-held miniature to an architectural scale and from conventionally hung paintings to scrolls and screens for the theatre stage. Prominent exhibitions include solo shows in Bombay, Delhi and Ahmedabad (1983,'84,'85,'93 and '95); Group Exhibition, New Delhi (1974); Pictorial Space, New Delhi (1977); New Contemporaries, Bombay (1978); touring exhibition in West Germany (1982); Through the Looking Glass in Bhopal, New Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay (1987-89); Dispossession, Africus, First Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa (1995); and The Second Asia - Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (1996).

To read the short abstract please click here

Tuesday, 29.07.2008, Venue: Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 6:30pm

28.6.2008
Partition: The Long Shadow " Making sense of history": A panel Discussion on Psychiatry and the Partition of 1947.
28 June 2008, at Casurina Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 6:30 pm
Heinrich Böll Foundation, India Habitat centre, Max Mueller Bhavan and Zubaan present another lecture in the Series "Partition: The Long Shadow".
Panelist are: Dr Sanjeev Jain , Psychiatrict, NIMHANS, Banglore.Dr Indivar Kamtekar, Historian, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Sanjeev Saith, Photographer, Delhi. Dr Alok Sarin, Psychiatrist, Sitaram Bhartia Hospital, Delhi.

 >>For more details on the discussion please click here.

23.04.2008
The EU- India-FTA and its social, economic and gender-related impact
Round Table in Berlin "China and India in the ( World) economy"
Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, Berlin/Germany

An international round table at the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation in Berlin/Germany brought together India and German experts as well as policy makers, researchers and civil society activists on the issues of the EU-India-Free Trade Agreement (FTA). As the FTA negotiations so far have been conducted in closed sessions, all participants stressed the importance to increase knowledge and raise awareness concerning the possible social, ecological and gender-political impacts of the FTA.

>> To read the Protocal click here.

21.4.2008
Partition: The Long Shadow "Digesting the 'Other': Hindu Nationalism, Partition and the Muslims in India"

21 April 2008, at Gulmohar, India Habitat Centre, Vardhaman Marg, New Delhi, 7:00 pm
Heinrich Böll Foundation, India Habitat centre, Max Mueller Bhavan and Zubaan present another lecture in the Series "Partition: The Long Shadow". Dr. Jyotirmaya Sharma, Professor in Political Science at the University of Hyderabad, will talk about the relationship between the Hindus and Muslims in India, taking the historical development of the Hindu nationalism as a venture point to trace it to the present date.
>>To read the short abstract please click here.

25.3.2008
Power Point Presentation and Papers Download

•  Gender Workshop Report
• "A Perspective from EU Civil Society" Christa Wichterich (WIDE)
• "Presentation on India-EU Trade And Investment Agreement Negotiations" R.S. Ratna (Director Regional & Multilateral Trade Relations)
• "EU-India FTA: Civil Society Perspective" G. Manicandan (Centre for Education and Communication)
• "Mapping Concerns: Trade and Privatisation" Shalini Bhutani (GRAIN)
• "Rich Lands Poor People. Is 'Sustainable' Mining Possible?" Monali Zeya Hazra (CSE) (to access please contact HBF India office)
• "Challenges of Mainstreaming Gender in Trade Agreements: Role of Development Agencies" Biplove Choudhary (APTII, UNDP)

26.3.2008

• "Neoclassical Theory Through a Gender Lense" Shipra Nigam (Research Scholar)
• "The EU-ASEAN FTA: Gender Issue and Advocacy" Naty Bernadino (IGTN)
• "The Concept of Fair Trade & Fair Trade Forum India" P.V. Jayakumar (Fair Trade Forum)
• "Women Handloom Weavers: Facing the Brunt" D. Narasimha Reddy (CHIP) 
• "Gender and Trade, Agriculture Sector" Sheelu Francis (Women's Collective)
• "Gender Specific Effects of a Deregulated Financial Sector" Marianne Hochuli (Berne Declaration)
• "Intellectual Property Provisions in Bilateral Free Trade Agreements: Controversial Issues" Marianne Hochuli (Berne Declaration)
• "Approaches of Research on Gender & Trade" Anushree Sinha (NCAER)
• "CUTS Analytical Framework to Understand Gender Implications of the EU-India FTA" Bipul Chatterjee (CUTS CITEE)
  

25.3.-26.3.2008
A Capacity Building Workshop on Trade Liberalization Policies & FTAs: Social and Gender implications of EU-India FTA
organized by HBF (India) – WIDE (Brussels) – SAI (New Delhi)
25.3.2008: Trade Liberalization Policies & FTAs: Social and Gender implications of EU-India FTA
26.3.2008: Gender and Trade: Special focus on the Social and Gender Implications of the EU-India FTA (A Brainstorming Workshop)

The launch of the negotiations on EU-India Free Trade Agreements (FTA) in June 2007 is yet another sign of India's active engagement in bilateral trade, a development intensified over the past few years. The prevailing lack of transparency on both sides regarding the framework and the current state of negotiations, the various interests involved and the key issues at stake calls for further action. There is an imperative need for information dissemination, awareness raising and capacity building on trade and market liberalization policies in general and more specifically in the framework of the EU-India FTA and its implications for social development and gender justice. The first day of the workshop is conceptualized as a public event to build capacities on trade liberalization policies and the EU-India FTA. It is intended to initiate dialogue from representative stakeholder groups (Government, CSO’s Media, Academia and Industry) with the objective of mapping perspectives and social concerns for a future reform and advocacy agenda. The second day will be devoted towards a CSO capacity building event on Gender and Trade. Built into the day is also a consultative process that provides inputs to HBF India towards launching a programme on Gender and Trade and setting the stage for collaborative partnerships.

For more detailed information:
Download PDF of Schedule here
Download PDF for 25.3.2008 here
Download PDF for 26.3.2008 here

21.2.2008
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

Heinrich Böll Foundation India and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune organise a joint seminar on the impact of climate change and the role of scientific research.
Prof. Anders Levermanns will speak on "The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation - a possible tipping point in a warming world?".

Thursday, 21.2.2008, 4:00 p.m.
Venue: Varahamihir Hall at IITM Campus, Pune.

21.2.2008

The Great Partition and Its Effects: The Case of Ladakh by Dr Siddiq Wahid

Heinrich Böll Foundation, Max Mueller Bhavan, India Habitat Centre and Zubaan are pleased to present the fifth lecture in their series "Partition: The Long Shadow".
In the context of world history, the 1947 partition of India into two new states was neither a sudden event nor without lasting consequences - politically, economically and socially. This is accepted wisdom for the Punjab and Bengal, ant to an extent "mainstream" India and Pakistan. However, the remotest frontiers too were affected by this event in no less measure, and indeed perhaps more than the so-called "mainstream" societies and civilizations. The talk will seek to provide a sketch of a fresh perspective from "the periphery" to the "centre" on the phenomenon of the new state creation in the context of the partition of 1947.
SIDDIQ WAHID is Vice Chancellor, Islamic University of Science and Technology in Jammu and Kashmir. Prior to this he was the Maharaja Gulab Singh Chair Professor at the University of Jammu. He has taught at Harvard University in the Department of Inner Asian and Altaic Studies. His academic fields of interest are Political Philosophy and Central Asian History.
Prof. Wahid is a director of the J&K Muslim Waqf Board, he serves on the Governing Board (Senate) of the National Institute of Technology at Srinagar, is a founding member of India Forum, a member of the Board of Directors of Panos India and a member of several other professional bodies. He is a political activist in the process of resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir probblem. He has written widely for anthologies on literature, politics and history and is the author of "Ladakh Between Earth and Sky". Among his current academic interest are contemporary Islam and a translation of the epic of "Kesar". He has lectured widely in Europe, the United States, Australia and India in his field of study and on the Jammu and Kashmir problem.

Thursday, 21.2.2008, 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Gulmohar, India Habitat Centre Varhaman Marg, New Delhi.
(Entry from gate no 3)


20.2.2008
Hitting Climate where it hurts

Heinrich Böll Foundation India and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore organise a joint seminar on climate change and the needs for further scientific research.
Prof. Anders Levermanns will present a paper "Hitting climate where it hurts - Is there a risk of a collapse of the Atlantic overturning circulation and what are the potential impacts?" which will be followed by a panel discussion.

Wednesday, 20.2.2008, 4:00 p.m.
Venue: Seminar Hall of Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

18.2.2008
Climate Change - Scientific Basis, Observed Consequences and Risks for the Future

The German Embassy, New Delhi and Heinrich Böll Foundation cordially invite you to the tenth Science Circle Meeting.
A Lecture by Prof. Anders Levermann, Professor of Dynamics of the Climate System at the Physics Institute of Potsdam University and at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany.

Monday, 18.2.2008, 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Casuarina, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi 110 003
(Entry from Gate No. 3 on Vardhaman Marg)

For more detailed information on the Indo German Science Circle and its lectures please click here.

14.2.2008
Contested Space and Identity in the Indian Northeast

A one-day seminar by the Academy of Third World Studies Jamia Millia Islamia, in collaboration with the Centre for Northeast Studies and Policy Research and with support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Conveniently lumped together as the “Indian Northeast”, the eight states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura boast a rare ethnic diversity and cultural heritage. In the late 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century the Indian Northeast sparked keen research interest among leading anthropologists, such as Christoph von Fuerer-Haimendorf (“The Naked Nagas”, “Himalayan Barbary”) and Verrier Elwin (“The Art of the Northeast Frontier of India”). Anthropological methodology and sensitivity may have progressed since but anthropological research on the Indian Northeast has been in sharp decline since the 1960’s. Today, if the Northeast is being discussed at all, it is in the context of conflict and development as well as the nexus between the two. But the complex societies in the eight “sister states” are not always fully understood and there is a fair amount of confusion about the root causes, the dynamics and the nature of civil strife in India’s borderlands.  Meanwhile, it is clear that the unresolved problems of the Northeast pose a major challenge to the project of nation-building and put the viability of traditional concepts of security, development and autonomy to the test.  It is proposed to hold a one-day conference, in collaboration with the Centre for Northeast Studies and Policy Research and with support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, with a view to (1) bringing key aspects of the situation in the Northeast into renewed focus; (2) clarifying concepts and notions relevant to the understanding of the Northeast; (3) shedding light on the regional geo-political environment; and (4) providing a platform to discuss policies for responsive and accountable governance.
For the complete concept note on the Seminar please click  here.

PROGRAMME
9:45 – 10:00: Inaugural remarks by Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan
10:00 – 11:30: Session I: The Role of the State and Non-State Actors in the Northeast
Moderator: Sanjoy Hazarika, Centre for Northeast Studies and Policy Research, Guwahati / Delhi

1. Shri Prakash, Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia (to be confirmed)
2. Ravi Hemadri, The Other Media, Delhi: “Civil Society Initiatives and the Indian State in the Borderlands”
3. Rita Manchanda, South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Delhi: “Redefining boundaries of the discourse on the Northeast: A Gendered Perspective on Human Security”
4. Bhagat Oinam, Centre for Philosophy, School of Social Sciences, JNU: “State, Non-State and Civil Society Space: The Politics of Appropriation and Delegitimization”

11:30 – 13:15: Session II: Identity and Community in the Borderlands
Moderator: Walter Fernandes, North Eastern Social Research Centre, Guwahati

1. Partha Ghosh, Centre for South, Central, Southeast Asian and Southwest Pacific Studies, School of International Studies, JNU: “Assam Within or Without India’s Northeast: A Perspective”
2. Sunita Akoijam, Imphal Free Press, Manipur: “The Psychological Impact of Violence on Society: Living in a Culture of Fear”
3. Sanghamitra Misra, Nelson Mandela Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia: “Between Borders: Writing Histories of Borderland Identities in Northeastern India”
4. Akum Longchari, The Morung Express, Kohima: “The Caravan: State Identity and Self-Definition”

13:15 – 14:00: Lunch
14:00 – 15:30: Session III: Avenues to Peace and the Prism of Perception
Moderator: Sanjib Baruah, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati

1. Walter Fernandes, North Eastern Social Research Centre, Guwahati: “Demystifying Development as a Recipe for Peace in the Northeast”
2. Namrata Goswami, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, “Understanding the Ground Realities: The Naga and the Dimasa Peace Processes”
3. Radha Kumar, Nelson Mandela Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia: “The Challenge of the Northeast from a Comparative Conflict Resolution Perspective”
4. Fasiha Qadri, Mercy Corps, Srinagar: “Peace and Conflict Narratives: A View from Kashmir”

15:30 – 17:00: Panel Discussion: The Northeast and the Bigger Picture
Moderator: Bhagat Oinam, Centre for Philosophy, School of Social Sciences, JNU

1. Sanjoy Hazarika, Centre for Northeast Studies and Policy Research, Guwahati / Delhi
2. Sanjib Baruah, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
3. Ram Narayan Kumar, South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Kathmandu

17:00: Vote of Thanks, followed by High Tea

For the print-out version please click here.

Events in 2007

- Introduction on Partition: The Long Shadow
- United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Visit of Rene Böll
- A Mission in Kashmir: How the Kashmir Conflict Started
- Visit of Winfried Hermann
- The Persistence of Partition: The Sindhis in India
- The US-Indo Nuclear Deal
- The Contradictions of National Space
- Inaugural Day Event of the Partition Series
- Archive: Events in 2006


Introduction on Partition: The Long Shadow

A Series of Dialogues and Conversations presented by Heinrich Böll Foundation, India Habitat Centre, Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi & Zubaan

Introduction
The year 2007 marks the 60th anniversary of the Partition of India. As an event Partition remains seminal in the history of the subcontinent, and its legacies are still present in daily life, in culture and in politics not only in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In many ways, however, in all three countries, it has taken historians and ordinary people some time to come to grips with the traumatic history of violence and dislocation of Partition. Because it has been seen as the "dark side of independence" Partition and its human histories have not, until recently, received much attention. While its political history has received considerable attention, its human histories have been relatively neglected. Even when the fiftieth anniversary of Partition took place a decade ago, little was done to mark that time.

The Project
The Partition Project is essentially a programme of lectures, dialogues, and readings from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to mark the 60th anniversary of Partition, and will carry on for one whole year with a lecture or presentation each month. This series of talks and discussions will be held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, with an aim to be both a memorializing of that history, as well as a caution that such histories do not bear repetition. It will also aim to explore hitherto unexplored dimensions of Partition, with new research being brought to light. In doing so, it is bound to open up a dialogue on Partition that can also help to open up ways to speak about that which has so far remained unspoken, and to start not only the process of healing some of the wounds of Partition but also to contribute towards building up ties of friendship with the countries that grew out of the Partition, specifically Pakistan and Bangladesh. It will also seek to pay tribute to the people who lived through Partition and who have remained unsung heroes in South Asia.

Objective
The project aims to open up thinking on an area that is central to South Asia's history and its present realities but on which there has been little open discussion.
Some of the questions the project hopes to address are:
How do countries deal with a violent past?
How do they recover from historical trauma?
How does the process of healing and friendship begin?
What kinds of issues need to be opened up for this process to acquire a certain momentum?

It uses the 60th anniversary of Partition as a take off point to bring attention to these issues. By involving all three countries that were created out of the Partition of the subcontinent, the Project will ensure that the discussion will not remain limited or one-sided.
Underlying this effort are very clear goals:

That of working for peace and harmony in South Asia
That of moving beyond the political rhetoric of hatred and enmity
Talking of friendship, of sharing, of healing and of the future

Target Group
The project targets a wide range of people: students, academics, literary people, bureaucrats, civil and human rights groups, partition survivors and others. While any of these people may be interested in the whole programme, each event may also draw a specific audience, for example a discussion on the experience of minorities during Partition may well draw more people from minority groups than others, or a discussion of the Dalit experience may draw more people from Dalit groups.

Our Partners

Lectures and exhibitions

Zubaan, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Max Mueller Bhavan and India Habitat Centre are pleased to present
The Inward Arc
An exhibition of S.L. Parasher's Partition Sketches (1947 - 49)
from 21.-30.12.2007 at the Experimental Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre
New Delhi

A Broken Circle: Looking Back at Partition through Parasher's Sketches
A talk by Prajna Paramita Parasher
on 20.12.2007, 7:00 pm at Casuarina Hall, India Habitat Centre
New Delhi

The next in the series of Partition lectures for November end in Lahore had to be cancelled due to the political upheaval in the country. Notice of Cancellation for the talk scheduled for 1.12.2007
Heinrich Böll Foundation regrets to announce the cancellation of Neelam Hussain's talk 'Pakistani Women's Narratives of Partition' scheduled for 1 December at the Habitat Centre. Current developments in Pakistan have meant that the speaker is unable to come - she was among the 69 people arrested in the first few days, and this means that she is now unable to get a visa or travel. We will, however, reschedule the event as soon as things improve and Neelam is able to come to Delhi. Meanwhile our apologies for the cancellation, and we will inform you of further events very shortly.


3.- 4.12.2007
United Nations Climate Change Conference, Bali

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 13) is taking place in Bali (Indonesia) from December 3rd to the 15th, 07. It’s the next step in the UN Negotiations on Climate Change. The expected resolutions are to initiate a drafting process of an agreement, which is meant to lead to a succession of the Kyoto-Protocol in 2012.
The fourth recently published report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) again illustrated the urgency of a mutual agreement. Global Warming has to be restricted to a level of less than 2 degree Celsius as compared to the pre-industrialized level so that the most severe impacts of climate change can be eluded. In achieving this goal industrialized countries need to rapidly restrict and reverse their GHG emissions, whereas emerging and transforming countries such as India need to limit the increase of their GHG emissions.
Furthermore, the mechanisms applied in the Kyoto Protocol have to be assessed and where required adapted; moreover dialogue fora between industrialized and developing countries have to be initiated to discuss the financing of the adaptation process,  research and development in the field of mitigating technology as well as the process of transferring technologies and patents from industrialized to developing countries.
The outcomes of the negotiations in Bali will set the future direction of the global combat with climate change. Hence it is of highest priority that the negotiations lead to a substantial and binding framework which could be implemented and operationalised.
Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) offers reports and positions about the situation on the eve of the negotiations. HBF will receive these firsthand information from different regions from its offices abroad. Additionally positions of select and relevant international and official institutions from participating countries or Bali also will be published.
Click here for the HBF-Bali-Programme

For more information about the Bali-Conference please click here.

26.-27.11.2007
Visit of Rene Böll

26.– 27.11.2007 Visit of Rene Böll in Delhi

1.- 2.11.2007
Visit of Winfried Hermann

1.-2.11.2007 Visit to Delhi by Winfried Hermann

Sixty years, and two generations after Partition, it is worth asking if as a historical event, or metaphor, Partition persists in the lives of the Sindhis. Is Partition a shared referential trope for the translocal Sindhi who does business in three continents, or the one who lives in an urban Indian city and runs a cloth shop, or the one who continues to live in what-were-once refugee camps, and waits for more gentrified (and therefore non-Sindhi) location? Kothari’s work on the Partition experience and resettlement of the Sindhis defies some of the oft-made generalizations about Partition. The focus shifts from the history to sociology of Partition, from the day of departure to the trauma of arrival, from collective memory to collective forgetting. The narrative is not plotted in terms of adversaries/friends from different religions, because the ‘other’ is absent from oral testimonies of the Sindhis. The ‘others’ had to be created, and believed as part of citizenship in the new nation-state, and boundaries of religion and culture had to be redrawn for membership in majoritarian circles.
The narrative of the Sindhis is shot through with irony: they emerge as winners by having escaped brutal violence, by rising spectacularly well out of the ashes of Partition and by putting behind the memory of pre-Partition lives. And yet, as Kothari illustrates through Gujarat, they paid some of the heaviest prices, and made losses which remain unacknowledged by everyone, including the Sindhis themselves.
Rita Kothari is Associate Professor, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad


31.08.- 1.09.2007
The US-Indo Nuclear Deal

31.08.-1.09.2007 The US-Indo Nuclear Deal A Critical Assessement Joint Resolution of the HBF, CNDP and PEACE

An International Conference on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal was held in New Delhi on August 31 and September 1, 2007. Convened by Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF), Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), Popular Education and Action Centre (PEACE), this unique event was attended by an overflowing audience at the India International Centre. Participants came from the United States, the European Union, Pakistan, Nepal, and different parts of India and represented varying backgrounds and disciplines.
The conference covered three thematic areas: the strategic and geo-political dimension, the deal’s implications for nuclear disarmament in South Asia and the world, and the myths and realities pertaining to nuclear energy.
The keynote address was delivered by the eminent economist Professor Jean Dreze who spoke of the immorality of nuclear weapons and the irrationality of the notion of nuclear deterrence. The deal, he pointed out, goes against various international norms, treaties and United Nations resolutions, and thereby undermines the cause of nuclear disarmament and peace.
Speakers who talked about the security aspects of the deal warned against the harmful consequences of a collusive strategic arrangement between India and the United States, given the ambitious pursuit of global military dominance by the US.
There was unanimity that the deal would aggravate the nuclear arms race in South Asia and the Asian continent as a whole, and would further weaken the already feeble momentum towards regional and global disarmament. The present nuclear momentum poses new and unique dangers in a world greatly changed since the end of the cold war.
Contrary to the claim that the deal will cap India’s nuclear arsenal, access to the international uranium market would allow the diversion of domestic uranium towards increased production of weapon-grade plutonium, sufficient for as many as an extra 40 bombs every year, in addition to India’s estimated inventory of 100-150 bombs.
There are serious misgivings about the deal in other South Asian countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. As a result of the deal, Pakistan is also accelerating its fissile material production efforts.
The deal is being promoted in the name of energy security trough nuclear power development. However, experience from all over the world, especially the history of the atomic energy department in India, has shown that nuclear power cannot be the route to energy security. It is environmentally unsound, accident-prone, and produces radioactive wastes that remain hazardous for tens of thousands of years.
Nuclear power is expensive and its rapid growth is infeasible. It cannot make a significant contribution, to tackling climate change. It is inappropriate to India’s specific energy needs that call for a mix of decentralized sources. Besides there are commercially viable and environmentally sustainable strategies such as increased efficiency and the promotion of renewable energy sources.
For all these reasons, the sense of the conference was that the deal is not in India’s interests and militates against the causes of nuclear disarmament and peace, as well as a sound energy politicy.
» Click here for a conference report printed in the 'Economic and Political Weekly' on September 22, 2007


Our partners:

CNDP

17.08.2007
The Contradictions of National Space: Contested Legality and Citizenship Practices in Post-Partition Northeast India
by Dr Sanjib Baruah

The shadow of the Partition of 1947 looms large on the contemporary life of Northeast India in one distinctive way.  On the one hand, the new international border dividing India and East Pakistan/Bangladesh is seen as inviolable. On the other hand, the partition could not change the position that the region acquired in colonial times as a frontier.  The flow of people from one of the subcontinent's most densely populated areas, to a relatively sparsely populated region open to new settlements, could not suddenly be turned off.   The border remains extremely porous till this day, and there is an extensive blurring between citizens and non-citizens. Viewed through the lenses of actual practice of citizenship, rather than legal fictions, what we have in many parts of Northeast India arguably, is a flexible citizenship regime - a flexible approach to voting where people can vote despite indeterminate citizenship status. Focusing on Assam, Dr Baruah examined the politics of how this regime has come about. While the discourse of illegal immigration dominates headlines, given the routines of illicit trans-border activity, the political aesthetics of everydayness has framed competing perceptions. Despite obvious tensions in this regime, Dr Baruah pointed to the reality of an actually existing transnational space that the trope of inviolable borders cannot handle. The region's future political stability in the long run, he argued, will depend on an ability to develop institutions and practices that are in line with this reality, rather than policies that seek to unilaterally enforce border control.
Sanjib Baruah is Professor of Political Studies, Bard College, New York.

14.08.2007
Inaugural Day Event of the Partition Series

14.08.2007 Inaugural Day Event of the Partition Series

Readings by Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhter

Story telling by Dastan Goi
Dastan Goi is a traditional form of storytelling which involves narrators creating stories as they perform them. The performance by Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain moved a little away from the traditional narrative to bring together a Dastan presentation around the Partition of India. It has drawed upon existing writings on Partition as well as new creations to narrate the trauma of Partition.

Toba Tek Singh, performed by the Ajoka Theatre group, Lahore
This short play based on the short stories “Toba Tek Shing”, “Siyah Hashiyae” and “Khol Do” by Saadat Hassan Manto. It is about a mentally challenged person who, when asked to choose between India and Pakistan, dies on the border of the two countries.“Toba Tek Shing” takes place in the Lahore Mental Hospital, which it becomes a metaphor for the insanity unleashed by the partition of India.