Journey Begins
Amnesty International India (AII) recently launched a Campus Caravan- a white traveler adorned with dazzling streamers in hues of yellow, orange, scarlet, azure and emerald green which in turn were embossed with various human rights issues such as right to life, disappearance, displacement, human security, borders, dignity, fundamentalisms and prison stories. Called the Week of Justice Caravan, it personified the figure of the Kabuliwalah unfurling his countless tales from different lands.
The Caravan was launched in Delhi at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Rendezvous Festival in September 2007 and was flagged off by actor Nandita Das. Since then the Kabulliwalah has traveled to various colleges and public places. This is the first time that AII took the initiative of expanding its activities to various colleges and institutes through a Caravan for the purpose of involving young people on the human rights issues. The Kabulliwalah wherever he went, invited youth and general public to support human rights and enroll as members of AII. He called upon young people to endorse for a cause, to take part in the Media and Justice Education Module and various competitions (Khel Khel Mein) themed around human rights issues, which will take place during the International Week of Justice Festival 2008. Also attracting much attention were the puppets of the Kabulliwalah. Clad in splendid hues of orange, fuchsia, shamrock green and purple, marching the lanes of various colleges with the campaign slogans they proved quite effective in the signature campaigns. (Photo Suggestion: IIT Puppets collecting signatures)
As he traveled, he narrated countless stories- stories of blood and anguish, of treachery and abuse; of immeasurable lives wizened with constant suffering; of those yearning to break from the ‘normalcy’ of war and violence; and also of those who intrepidly and persistently stood against the atrocities inflicted upon them. The Kabulliwalah conveyed his stories through plays, films, theatre, panel discussions, and exhibitions while also carrying out signature campaigns or Dastakhat Naama regarding death penalty and the recent crisis in Burma. Major themes of the Kabulliwalah included- abolition of death penalty, human rights and the professions, conflict resolution, truth-building and reconciliation, media and ethics, stop violence against women, and reforms in the criminal justice system, the right to protest, and freedom and democracy.
The photo exhibition titled Numaaish combined photos on issues such as disappearances and protests in Kashmir, the conditions and aspirations of dalit (musahar) children in schools of Bihar, textile mill workers in Gujarat of 2002 and the current humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. Myanmar was one of the key issues taken up by the Kabulliwalah. Dr. Tint Swe, Burmese parliamentarian and one of the speakers at the St. Stephens College on the panel discussion titled ‘Peoples’ Uprising in Burma: Transnationalisation of Youth Movements’ held under the talk series ‘Voices from Far and Near’, argued that ‘India must tell the regime to end violence immediately …the world must not fail the people of Burma again.’ (Photo Suggestion: LSR Fest - Photo Exhibition)
BOX
Numaaish, the Caravan’s photo exhibition, evoked diverse and at times contradictory views. Abhishek Paliwal remarked ‘pictures may not represent the true face’, while Sachin from Nepal said, ‘keep amplifying people’s voices through images.’
Another major issue which the AII Caravan took up is death penalty in support of the resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions, at the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in November 2007. In this context, through street theatre and signature campaign, the AII Caravan attempted to sensitise young people and general public on the issue of death penalty. This proved particularly successful on the Anti-Death Penalty Day (10th October) when the Caravan was at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The play ‘Vichaar Hona Chaahiye’ on death penalty performed by a professional theatre group focused on the shortcomings of the legal system in India and the defects in the theory of deterrence while ‘Kho Gaya’ was a philosophical and poignant demonstration of historical figures executed by the Indian state. Narrated in the voice of those executed the play unfolds through a speaking noose. It was directed by Lokesh Jain and involved student theatre volunteers from different colleges. Mashkoor Alam, a student of Jamia Milia Islamia and an actor in the play ‘Kho Gaya’ on death penalty says, ‘Playing the role of an executed figure, for the first time, perhaps, I felt the sense of trauma and anguish that such a person must have experienced.’ (Photo Suggestion: Kho Gaya Play at JNU)
BOX
Javed Iqbal Naqi, working committee member of the Caravan who is pursuing PhD in International Politics at JNU argues, hardly any institutes focus on human rights education, this Caravan exposes the students to the issues pertinent to human rights. Shubranshu Mishra, working committee member of the Caravan, also a student of Peace and Conflict Studies at Jamia Millia argues, ‘there may be times when we are extremely powerless to prevent an injustice. But there must never be a time when we fail to protest about it and the Kabulliwalah Express provided exactly the right platform to the students, youth to voice their concerns, their protests, their aspirations, their thoughts on a variety of issues- from reforming the criminal justice system to the crisis in Burma and against the imposition of emergency in Pakistan.’
Making Human Rights Everybody’s Business
One of the key endeavours of the Kabulliwalah was to address how professional aspirations and commitment to human rights could be reconciled. To that effect, the issue of ethics, conflict, truth-building, physical and mental integrity and justice, were to media, engineering and humanities students through film screenings and discussions. The panel discussion titled ‘Media and Ethics: Re-imagining the Fourth Estate’, which was held in JNU asked how a responsible media should respond to conflict, disaster, asylum, fake encounters, humanitarian crisis. The discussion dealt with issues of truth-making and the ethics of modern day investigative journalism such as sting operations and war reporting, and was led by eminent journalists Saaed Naqvi, Shankarsen Thakur from Tehelka and Mukul Sharma, Director, Amnesty International India.
The seminar titled ‘Making Human Rights Everybody’s Business’ done at the IIT in collaboration with the Dept of Humanities and Philosophy was intended to draw out engineering students’ as well as Philosophy Students to ponder over human rights. Thus Anikhet Bose, student representative from the EDLC, IIT Debating Club spoke on ‘Young Professionals and Human Rights’ alongside some distinguished academicians, advocates like Vrinda Grover and retired police officials like Sankar Sen engaged in reforming the criminal justice system. An interesting Paper on Human Rights and Buddhism*** was also presented by **** While Rukmini Bhaiya ***, HOD*** gave an overarching perspective on human rights****, corporate accountability was the main focus of Mukul Sharma’s deliberation. (Photo Suggestion: IIT Talk picture)
In the seminar on ‘Truth, Memory and Reconciliation’ done in collaboration with the Centre for peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia University, author and historian Dilip Simeon, raised some relevant issues on truth and social integrity, the place of truth in social healing and reconciliation and the institutional features of historical society that lead us to escape from truth or ‘that cause the truth to remain hidden’. An interesting introspection was presented by Amar Kanwar regarding the centrality of pain in the construction of memory and reconciliation and the many difficulties of capturing it as a filmmaker. Historian Radha Kumar, Mukul Sharma, Javed Naqvi, Ira Bhaskar were some of the other key speakers focusing on the possibilities and impossibilities of institutional, personal, collective, journalistic and cinematic staging of reconciliation. (Photo Suggestion: Jamia Talk photo)
Film screenings also proved to be an effective way of involving the youth on the human rights issues particularly as they could achieve student interaction with filmmakers and accomplished interlocutors from institutions like the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, ****. Amnesty Caravan introduced ‘No Glory’, a seven minute fast cut film set against a powerful music track Dignity by singer Bob Dylan, and this was played in several colleges. The film ‘Passengers: a Video Journey in Gujarat’ by Nooh Nizami and Akanksha Joshi, a tribute to the survivors of the Gujarat riots (2002), was screened at the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Mass Communication immediately after the Tehelka expose on Gujarat. (Photo Suggestion: Picture from Aurobindo college)
‘Manipur Song’ by Pankaj Butalia screened at Delhi School of Economics was not only a presentation of the tragedies wrought by militarization in the region, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFPSPA) of 1958, but also the portrayal of youth idealism and frustration in the region. Further, ‘Khamosh Paani’ directed by Sabiha Sumar was screened during the International Students’ Festival at the Convention Hall, University of Delhi. This film which deals with the issue of Partition and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan had a good response, with young people from different countries attending the screening.
As part of the Stop Violence Against Women (SVAW) campaign, Munizae Jehangir’s film ‘Search for Freedom’ on the lives of four Afghan women caught at different points of its violent trajectory, was screened at the Hindu College while Abbas Kiarostami’s ‘Ten’, a brilliant portrayal of the lives of ordinary Iranian women who are not so ordinary, was screened in collaboration with the NSS Society of the Hansraj College. The screenings sparked off interest and dialogue as evidenced in the long discussion on communal violence and struggle for normalcy after the film screening on Gujarat, or sometimes heated debate as between two students from Afghanistan on the role of the Taliban and the Northern Alliance following Search for Freedom’.
The Next Stop
The Kabulliwalah’s journey was undoubtedly thrilling and stimulating. As the Kabulliwah traveled to various places in the city, in the process, it built meaningful relations with youth, academicians, eminent journalists, film makers, theatre persons, other creative artists and professionals, student unions, clubs and societies, youth programmes, specific departments and faculty members in different colleges, and several human rights organisations from Delhi as well as other parts of India. The Kabulliwallah reached out to around 3000 people in Delhi through its participation in various student and youth festivals; through its activities in several colleges and institutes; and also through its presence at public places like Dilli Haat and India International Center (IIC) on the International Human Rights Day on 10th December. Within a span of two and a half months, through 10-12 theatre shows****, four panel discussions, 6/7 film screenings*** and several exhibitions, around a hundred people joined Amnesty International India as members and about 842 people expressed their eagerness in participating in AII activities leaving their contact addresses with the Caravan.
The Kabulliwalah’s journey is not over, there are lots more stories yet to be told and scores of places yet to be traveled. In fact the Kabulliwalah would soon set out to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Uttar Pradesh (UP); and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. The Caravan is also awaiting the response from more than 92 educational institutions from where the competition entries for the International Week of Justice Festival have already started coming in. Media institutions like Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, have shown eagerness to house Amnesty Caravan’s Media and Justice Educational Module. Several Institutions, like IIT and St. Stephens, want the Caravan again on their campus with issues concerning Criminal Justice System, Applied Ethics and Death Penalty. On the move, Amnesty Caravan invites students and colleges to form Amnesty Clubs and Human Rights Cells in their campus to keep the candle aglow for a torture free world.
----------------------------------
“The candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, kidnapped, who “disappeared”. That’s what the candle is for…” Peter Benenson, Founder Amnesty International.
Caravan Working Committee: Gowhar Fazili, Javed Naqi, Mary Khuvung, Meha Dixit, Shubranshu Mishra, Sana Das.
Amnesty International India is part of Amnesty International. Amnesty International is a worldwide movement for people who campaign for human rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Amnesty International is an impartial organization independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. It believes human rights must be respected universally, regardless of the ideology of the government or the beliefs of the victims. There are more than 2.2 million members and supporters and subscribers in more than 150 countries and territories in every region of the world. They come from all walks of life, with different backgrounds, united by a determination to work for a world where everyone enjoys human rights.
Amnesty International India (AII) recently launched a Campus Caravan- a white traveler adorned with dazzling streamers in hues of yellow, orange, scarlet, azure and emerald green which in turn were embossed with various human rights issues such as right to life, disappearance, displacement, human security, borders, dignity, fundamentalisms and prison stories. Called the Week of Justice Caravan, it personified the figure of the Kabuliwalah unfurling his countless tales from different lands.
The Caravan was launched in Delhi at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Rendezvous Festival in September 2007 and was flagged off by actor Nandita Das. Since then the Kabulliwalah has traveled to various colleges and public places. This is the first time that AII took the initiative of expanding its activities to various colleges and institutes through a Caravan for the purpose of involving young people on the human rights issues. The Kabulliwalah wherever he went, invited youth and general public to support human rights and enroll as members of AII. He called upon young people to endorse for a cause, to take part in the Media and Justice Education Module and various competitions (Khel Khel Mein) themed around human rights issues, which will take place during the International Week of Justice Festival 2008. Also attracting much attention were the puppets of the Kabulliwalah. Clad in splendid hues of orange, fuchsia, shamrock green and purple, marching the lanes of various colleges with the campaign slogans they proved quite effective in the signature campaigns. (Photo Suggestion: IIT Puppets collecting signatures)
As he traveled, he narrated countless stories- stories of blood and anguish, of treachery and abuse; of immeasurable lives wizened with constant suffering; of those yearning to break from the ‘normalcy’ of war and violence; and also of those who intrepidly and persistently stood against the atrocities inflicted upon them. The Kabulliwalah conveyed his stories through plays, films, theatre, panel discussions, and exhibitions while also carrying out signature campaigns or Dastakhat Naama regarding death penalty and the recent crisis in Burma. Major themes of the Kabulliwalah included- abolition of death penalty, human rights and the professions, conflict resolution, truth-building and reconciliation, media and ethics, stop violence against women, and reforms in the criminal justice system, the right to protest, and freedom and democracy.
The photo exhibition titled Numaaish combined photos on issues such as disappearances and protests in Kashmir, the conditions and aspirations of dalit (musahar) children in schools of Bihar, textile mill workers in Gujarat of 2002 and the current humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. Myanmar was one of the key issues taken up by the Kabulliwalah. Dr. Tint Swe, Burmese parliamentarian and one of the speakers at the St. Stephens College on the panel discussion titled ‘Peoples’ Uprising in Burma: Transnationalisation of Youth Movements’ held under the talk series ‘Voices from Far and Near’, argued that ‘India must tell the regime to end violence immediately …the world must not fail the people of Burma again.’ (Photo Suggestion: LSR Fest - Photo Exhibition)
BOX
Numaaish, the Caravan’s photo exhibition, evoked diverse and at times contradictory views. Abhishek Paliwal remarked ‘pictures may not represent the true face’, while Sachin from Nepal said, ‘keep amplifying people’s voices through images.’
Another major issue which the AII Caravan took up is death penalty in support of the resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions, at the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in November 2007. In this context, through street theatre and signature campaign, the AII Caravan attempted to sensitise young people and general public on the issue of death penalty. This proved particularly successful on the Anti-Death Penalty Day (10th October) when the Caravan was at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The play ‘Vichaar Hona Chaahiye’ on death penalty performed by a professional theatre group focused on the shortcomings of the legal system in India and the defects in the theory of deterrence while ‘Kho Gaya’ was a philosophical and poignant demonstration of historical figures executed by the Indian state. Narrated in the voice of those executed the play unfolds through a speaking noose. It was directed by Lokesh Jain and involved student theatre volunteers from different colleges. Mashkoor Alam, a student of Jamia Milia Islamia and an actor in the play ‘Kho Gaya’ on death penalty says, ‘Playing the role of an executed figure, for the first time, perhaps, I felt the sense of trauma and anguish that such a person must have experienced.’ (Photo Suggestion: Kho Gaya Play at JNU)
BOX
Javed Iqbal Naqi, working committee member of the Caravan who is pursuing PhD in International Politics at JNU argues, hardly any institutes focus on human rights education, this Caravan exposes the students to the issues pertinent to human rights. Shubranshu Mishra, working committee member of the Caravan, also a student of Peace and Conflict Studies at Jamia Millia argues, ‘there may be times when we are extremely powerless to prevent an injustice. But there must never be a time when we fail to protest about it and the Kabulliwalah Express provided exactly the right platform to the students, youth to voice their concerns, their protests, their aspirations, their thoughts on a variety of issues- from reforming the criminal justice system to the crisis in Burma and against the imposition of emergency in Pakistan.’
Making Human Rights Everybody’s Business
One of the key endeavours of the Kabulliwalah was to address how professional aspirations and commitment to human rights could be reconciled. To that effect, the issue of ethics, conflict, truth-building, physical and mental integrity and justice, were to media, engineering and humanities students through film screenings and discussions. The panel discussion titled ‘Media and Ethics: Re-imagining the Fourth Estate’, which was held in JNU asked how a responsible media should respond to conflict, disaster, asylum, fake encounters, humanitarian crisis. The discussion dealt with issues of truth-making and the ethics of modern day investigative journalism such as sting operations and war reporting, and was led by eminent journalists Saaed Naqvi, Shankarsen Thakur from Tehelka and Mukul Sharma, Director, Amnesty International India.
The seminar titled ‘Making Human Rights Everybody’s Business’ done at the IIT in collaboration with the Dept of Humanities and Philosophy was intended to draw out engineering students’ as well as Philosophy Students to ponder over human rights. Thus Anikhet Bose, student representative from the EDLC, IIT Debating Club spoke on ‘Young Professionals and Human Rights’ alongside some distinguished academicians, advocates like Vrinda Grover and retired police officials like Sankar Sen engaged in reforming the criminal justice system. An interesting Paper on Human Rights and Buddhism*** was also presented by **** While Rukmini Bhaiya ***, HOD*** gave an overarching perspective on human rights****, corporate accountability was the main focus of Mukul Sharma’s deliberation. (Photo Suggestion: IIT Talk picture)
In the seminar on ‘Truth, Memory and Reconciliation’ done in collaboration with the Centre for peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia University, author and historian Dilip Simeon, raised some relevant issues on truth and social integrity, the place of truth in social healing and reconciliation and the institutional features of historical society that lead us to escape from truth or ‘that cause the truth to remain hidden’. An interesting introspection was presented by Amar Kanwar regarding the centrality of pain in the construction of memory and reconciliation and the many difficulties of capturing it as a filmmaker. Historian Radha Kumar, Mukul Sharma, Javed Naqvi, Ira Bhaskar were some of the other key speakers focusing on the possibilities and impossibilities of institutional, personal, collective, journalistic and cinematic staging of reconciliation. (Photo Suggestion: Jamia Talk photo)
Film screenings also proved to be an effective way of involving the youth on the human rights issues particularly as they could achieve student interaction with filmmakers and accomplished interlocutors from institutions like the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, ****. Amnesty Caravan introduced ‘No Glory’, a seven minute fast cut film set against a powerful music track Dignity by singer Bob Dylan, and this was played in several colleges. The film ‘Passengers: a Video Journey in Gujarat’ by Nooh Nizami and Akanksha Joshi, a tribute to the survivors of the Gujarat riots (2002), was screened at the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Mass Communication immediately after the Tehelka expose on Gujarat. (Photo Suggestion: Picture from Aurobindo college)
‘Manipur Song’ by Pankaj Butalia screened at Delhi School of Economics was not only a presentation of the tragedies wrought by militarization in the region, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFPSPA) of 1958, but also the portrayal of youth idealism and frustration in the region. Further, ‘Khamosh Paani’ directed by Sabiha Sumar was screened during the International Students’ Festival at the Convention Hall, University of Delhi. This film which deals with the issue of Partition and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan had a good response, with young people from different countries attending the screening.
As part of the Stop Violence Against Women (SVAW) campaign, Munizae Jehangir’s film ‘Search for Freedom’ on the lives of four Afghan women caught at different points of its violent trajectory, was screened at the Hindu College while Abbas Kiarostami’s ‘Ten’, a brilliant portrayal of the lives of ordinary Iranian women who are not so ordinary, was screened in collaboration with the NSS Society of the Hansraj College. The screenings sparked off interest and dialogue as evidenced in the long discussion on communal violence and struggle for normalcy after the film screening on Gujarat, or sometimes heated debate as between two students from Afghanistan on the role of the Taliban and the Northern Alliance following Search for Freedom’.
The Next Stop
The Kabulliwalah’s journey was undoubtedly thrilling and stimulating. As the Kabulliwah traveled to various places in the city, in the process, it built meaningful relations with youth, academicians, eminent journalists, film makers, theatre persons, other creative artists and professionals, student unions, clubs and societies, youth programmes, specific departments and faculty members in different colleges, and several human rights organisations from Delhi as well as other parts of India. The Kabulliwallah reached out to around 3000 people in Delhi through its participation in various student and youth festivals; through its activities in several colleges and institutes; and also through its presence at public places like Dilli Haat and India International Center (IIC) on the International Human Rights Day on 10th December. Within a span of two and a half months, through 10-12 theatre shows****, four panel discussions, 6/7 film screenings*** and several exhibitions, around a hundred people joined Amnesty International India as members and about 842 people expressed their eagerness in participating in AII activities leaving their contact addresses with the Caravan.
The Kabulliwalah’s journey is not over, there are lots more stories yet to be told and scores of places yet to be traveled. In fact the Kabulliwalah would soon set out to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Uttar Pradesh (UP); and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. The Caravan is also awaiting the response from more than 92 educational institutions from where the competition entries for the International Week of Justice Festival have already started coming in. Media institutions like Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, have shown eagerness to house Amnesty Caravan’s Media and Justice Educational Module. Several Institutions, like IIT and St. Stephens, want the Caravan again on their campus with issues concerning Criminal Justice System, Applied Ethics and Death Penalty. On the move, Amnesty Caravan invites students and colleges to form Amnesty Clubs and Human Rights Cells in their campus to keep the candle aglow for a torture free world.
----------------------------------
“The candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, kidnapped, who “disappeared”. That’s what the candle is for…” Peter Benenson, Founder Amnesty International.
Caravan Working Committee: Gowhar Fazili, Javed Naqi, Mary Khuvung, Meha Dixit, Shubranshu Mishra, Sana Das.
Amnesty International India is part of Amnesty International. Amnesty International is a worldwide movement for people who campaign for human rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Amnesty International is an impartial organization independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. It believes human rights must be respected universally, regardless of the ideology of the government or the beliefs of the victims. There are more than 2.2 million members and supporters and subscribers in more than 150 countries and territories in every region of the world. They come from all walks of life, with different backgrounds, united by a determination to work for a world where everyone enjoys human rights.
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