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I have before me the PUCL
(People’s Union for Civil Liberties) Report on Communal
violence in Sarada Village, Udaipur after a murder of a
Meena tribal which was purely of a criminal nature. The
PUCL team consisted of senior advocate Ramesh Nandwana,
Vinita Srivastav, a lawyer, Arun Vyas, Shyam Lal Dogra,
Shri Ram Arya, Hemlata, Rajesh Singh and Rashid. Sarada
village had witnessed communal incidents a couple of
years ago also.
According to the Report,
on 2nd July, one Shehzad Khan and two of his
associates murdered Mohan Meena, who was dealing with
illegal alcoholic substances during a fight while
drinking the said substance. Subsequent to this the
Adivasis began setting Muslim shops on fire from 3rd
to 5th July. These Muslims had nothing to do
with the murder. And on 18th July Amrut Lal
Meena, a local BJP leader from and resident of Boripal
and others of his colleagues said that their major goal
was destruction of Muslim Read more
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WORKSHOP ON “WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT – REVISITED”
The Workshop on Women Empowerment – Revisited was conducted
jointly by Centre for Study of Society and Secularism,
Mumbai and Indian Social Institute, Bangalore on the
 1st
and 2nd July 2010 at the ISI, Bangalore.
The Inaugural function began at 10.30 in the morning. The
guests on the dais included Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, Dr.
Vasundhara Mohan, Fr. M.K. George & Mrs. Nina Nayak.
Ms.
A. Sagaya Shanthy, the Co-ordinator of the women’s Unit
of ISI welcomed the guests and gave insight into the
purpose of the workshop. She said that the main aim of
the workshop is to revisit the empowering process, as
empowerment seems more of a financial empowerment.Read
More
Interfaith Dialogue on "Role of Religion and State in
Reforms"
An
Interfaith dialogue on Role of Religion and State was
organized by CSSS jointly with Institute
 of
Indian Culture, at Institute of Indian Culture, Gyan
Ashram Complex, Mahakali caves Road, Andheri (East),
Mumbai on 25th June 2010. The welcome note
was given by Ms. Ritu Pathak Programme Executive of CSSS,
where she mentioned about the need to organize this
interfaith. She welcomed the guests after which, Dr
Asghar Ali Engineer gave the keynote address, where he
mentioned about the importance of the topic and said
that there is need for reforms in religion and that can
be brought out by us. He gave various examples of
reforms brought out during the British period like sati
practice, child marriage etc. he also cited various
examples from Quran which mentions that it is right
based for women and duty based for men.
Read
more
Lecture on “Kerala Model of
Secularism”
 CSSS
organized a lecture in Calicut, Kerala in collaboration
with new setup Forum for Communal Harmony on “Kerela
Model of Secularism” on 24th May 2010. It was
presided over by Munnawar Ali Thangal. Dr Asghar Ali
Engineer was the chief Guest and the key note speaker.
He spoke at length on History of Islam in Kerala and how
it entered peacefully unlike in the north. The oldest
mis-give is found in Kerala which was built by one of
the Companions of the Prophet. He also said that the
population of Kerala is well balanced between Christians
20%, Muslims 20%, and Ezhavas 40% and rest are Nairs and
Namboodiries upper caste. This by itself ensures peace
and communal harmony. There have been no major riots in
Kerala state. He also said that another reason for this
is cultural integration, all Muslims Christians, Hindu
speak same language wear same dress and each share same
food, Music and Dance.
Another speaker was Prof Narayanan a noted Historian of
Kerala. He threw light of Kerala’s past history and said
there have been no conflicts between Hindu rulers and
Muslim Rulers in Kerala. They fought together against
foreign invaders. There were 200 participants, Social
activists, Scholars, NGO representatives, political
leaders etc.
Seminar on
"Sixty Years of Secularism and Pluralistic Democracy in
India"
Centre
for Study of Society and Secularism jointly with
Gandhigram University, Dept. of Political Science
organized a two day National Seminar on Sixty Years
of Secularism and Pluralistic Democracy in India on
27th and 28th April 2010 at YWCA
International
 Guest House, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. There
were 18 papers presented on various aspects of
evaluation of secularism in India. Eminent speakers like
Mr.N.Ram (Editor-in Chief, The Hindu), Dr.Asghar
Ali Engineer (Chairman, CSSS), Prof. K.N.
Panikkar (Chairperson, Kerala Council for Historical
Research) on the directions and problems that
surfaces the Indian Secularism and a long discussion on
minority problems. The proceedings of the seminar would
be brought out in the book form.
Dr.Asghar Ali Engineer delivered the keynote address at
the seminar and also in one of the sessions he
elaborately discussed the problems of minorities in a
secular society and also the thread to Indian
secularism.
Read More
Workshop on "Women
Empowerment"
 Centre
for Study of Society and Secularism in collaboration
Committee for Right to Housing organized one day
Community Workshop on Women Empowerment on 29 March
2010. The CSSS Research Department entirely coordinated
the progamme and the lectures delivered were by the
researchers of Department. The topic discussed were
Education and Time Management by Mr. Anwar Hussain,
Rights of Muslim Women and their Problems by Ms. Shazia
Shaikh and Political Participation of Women by
Ms. Minal Mhatre.
Youth camp on "Awareness and
Sensitization"
 Centre
conducted a three day youth camp on ‘Awareness and
sensitization’ programme in Mumbai at St. Pius College
from 23rd to 25th March 2010. The
interesting feature of the three day workshop for the
youth was that of varied activities like Peace March,
Elocution competition and cultural songs. Participants
were there from Pune, Bangalore and Madhurai, which also
include foreign nationals from Uganda, Kenya and
Tanzania.
All
though the participants felt that there should have been
an empirical survey to some nearby conflict zone; it
could not be done because of paucity of time. The
academic lectures on conceptual frame work of Human
Rights, Gender Issue, role of youth in civil society and
also international ethnic conflicts were discussed. The
students thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and all
participated in the all three day. |
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1) Workshop on
Women's empowerment, July 1-2, 2010
2) Interfaith
Dialogue on Role of religion and state in reforms, 25th
June, 2010
3)
Seminar on 60 years of secularism and pluralistic
democracy, 27-28th April 2010
4) Youth camp on
Secularism, communal harmony, peace and role of youth in
Society...
5) Community Workshop on Women Empowerment, Juinagar, Navi
Mumbai...
6) Seminar on "Cultural Diversity and Nation Building". Jan
30, 2010...
7) Workshop on inclusive democracy, secularism and communal
harmony on Jan 4-8,
2010...
Read
more
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