Mahila Shanti Sena
WOMEN’S PEACE BRIGADE INTERNATIONAL • FOUNDED: FEBRUARY 2002
NEWSLETTER  VOL. 3, #4  DECEMBER, 2011
Compiled by: Dr. Rama Singh, Professor, Department of Biology and Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Ph: (905) 525-9140 ext. 24378, Fax: (905) 522-6066; [email protected]; www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi
Power of love and love of power
Can New India fulfil Poonam’s dream?
Dear Poonam,
I am very pleased to write to you. You have become a celebrity.
As you know a prominent national newspaper in Canada has
carried a story of your remarkable life in a series of articles that
appeared just before Christmas. At Christmas time we are used to
seeing such stories about deprived and less well off people but
yours is a remarkable one as it touches the conscience of India
and relates to a major social problem; the Indian caste system.
I was very proud to read your statement that when you grow
up you wish to become something – maybe a teacher – and
do something for your country. I admire your thoughts and
the love for your country and I pray your wish comes true.
The Indian caste system is like a permanent ink mark – it’s
hard to remove the spot. A permanent ink mark on your finger
takes time to wear off but it does wear off ultimately. If you try
to remove it quickly, you run the risk of losing a piece of your
skin with it. The current political and social schemes to abolish
the caste system are well intended but are doing a lot of bad
along with the good. The pain and suffering caused by quick-fix
and affirmative action programs are understandable. The caste
system has become a political weapon. It’s creating a lot of ill
will among the people. Millennium old cultural practices will not
disappear just by enacting laws. People have to work for it.
It’s interesting that while untouchability has disappeared rather
quickly, caste divisions have not. If anything, anti-caste legislations
are making caste-based divisions stronger, not weaker. The problem
is not one of power but of respect. Rich or poor, everybody
deserves respect, but respect is disappearing in new India. Respect
is not a monopoly of the rich; the poor have respect too.
The caste system will not go away if all we do is replace
the old rich with the new rich. The new India should
take the old values and add some new ones: equality,
dignity, equality of opportunity, respect for elderly and
women, love for your neighbour, and so forth
Young people like you are the makers of the New India. I would
like you to dream and dream big. While India may not be able
to fulfil your dream, you have the power in yourself to make
the New India a proud, just and caring nation. We need young
people to serve the country and become an example in their
neighbourhoods. The New India does not need charity; What India
needs is a social revolution which can bring people together.
A nation does not become great by wealth alone. A great nation
needs to cultivate the quality of empathy, dignity and respect for
all. The old India was economically poor but rich in noble thoughts.
Indians created a culture that cared about the whole world. Now
when India is becoming rich, we seem to be losing our sense
of values and thoughts. Once we wanted the West to follow our
values; now India is falling head over heel to follow Western values.
I feel sorry, Poonam, that life has not been easy for you or
for your family. You feel socially isolated in your village,
your house is inadequate, discrimination runs rampant,
and, on top of it all, you run the risk of being given away
in marriage at a tender age and risk losing education.
It’s hard to be a girl anywhere but more so in India.
These are testing times for you. These hardships are going to
shape what you want to become. The biggest challenge for
you is going to be to learn how not to hate. Hatred wastes
your time and it weakens you from inside. It’s not easy to
learn not to hate but you can slowly learn it. Start with caring
for others and practice forgiveness – one day at a time. You
are lucky to have good teachers; they will look after you.
My final advice to you, Poonam, is this: In life we have a choice
between the power of love and the love of power. I see in you
the power of love for your country taking hold and suggest that
you try to stay away from the love of power. You will do well.
As a personal note, we run an organization called Mahila Shanti
Sena which, interestingly, started in your home state, Bihar,
in 2002. This organization promotes women’s rights and their
role in building society. Mahila Shanti Sena is a Gandhian
organization and it promotes mass awareness, a sense of selfempowerment and social service among women. We publish a
regular newsletter. I would encourage you to write a letter – about
your village, your school, your teachers, and your friends – and
we would love to publish it. I hope to meet you one day.
You are a courageous girl. Dreams, courage and tolerance
will take you far. You can be what you want to be.
With my love and best wishes,
Rama Singh
1
MSS – Partner Organizations
CANADA
Canadian Gandhi Foundation for World
Peace,
Edmonton, Canada
INDIA
ADITHI (NGO)
Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India
Gandhi Peace Foundation
Rajghat, New Delhi, India
Gandhian Studies Foundation
Rajghat, Varanasi, U.P., India
Jaya Prakash Bharati (NGO)
Rasulpur, Saran, Bihar, India
Kasturba Gandhi Foundation
Agartala, Tripura, India
Mahila Shanti Sena
Manipur, India
Sharambharati (NGO)
Khadigram, Bihar, India
Tamulpur Anchalik Gramdan Sangh
(TAGS)
Kumarikata, Assam, India
Vision Society for Interactive
Operational Needs (VISION)
Varanasi, India
Unnayan (NGO)
Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
USA
Sustainable Economic and Educational
Development Society (SEEDS)
MSS (International)
Board Members
Subhash Dighe, Physiotherapist, Hamilton
Reva Joshee, Professor, OISE,
University of Toronto
Graeme MacQueen, Professor (Emeritus),
McMaster University
Sri Gopal Mohanty, Professor (Emeritus),
McMaster University
Anne Pearson, Assistant Professor,
Department of Religious Studies,
McMaster University
Karen Sihra, Graduate Student,
OISE, University of Toronto
Rama Singh, Professor,
Department of Biology and Centre for
Peace Studies, McMaster University
Mark Vorobej, Professor,
Department of Philosophy,
McMaster University
Ashley White
MSS is a registered not-for-profit
organization in Canada.
Mahila Shanti Sena International (MSS)
(Women’s Peace Brigade)
...Give women a chance...
…Make them agents of change…
...Help break the circle of poverty, violence and neglect...
...It (each village community) should be able to plan its total life in
terms of economy, education, health and other things pertaining
to local life. The village community needs an army of peaceworkers, who will not fight among themselves but are willing
to solve problems and resolve conflicts and disputes peacefully.
In this task of neighbourhood-building, women are likely to be
better than men. That is the rationale of Mahila Shanti Sena...
..Can we not use her (woman’s) creative talents to
make society more human and enlightened?
Acharya Ramamurti
What is Mahila Shanti Sena?
It is a peace movement
•to empower women in order to build a peaceful
and just society along with men
•to raise mass awareness among women to
realize their strength and power
•to focus on women’s problem such as violence,
poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and neglect.
•to provide training in the rudiments of peace,
democracy and development
•to promote Gandhian tradition of engaging
in constructive village service.
Participation in MSS peace movement is open to both men and women.
When did it start and what has followed?
•Conceptualized by Late Acharya Ramamurti, a revered
social activist and leader in Ganhian tradition.
•Created by rural women at the Buddhist City, Vaishali,
in Vashali Sabha held in Frebruary 2002.
•Attracted about 10,000 women in Bihar to Vaishali Sabha.
•Founded by Shrambharati (NGO, India) and McMaster University.
•Spread to North Eastern States of India, UP and Odisha.
•Held three conferences, one in Vashali (2002) and
supported by UNICEF and McMaster, the second in
New Delhi (2005) supported by CIDA, Govt of India
and McMaster, and the third in Sarnath (2007)
•MSS members getting elected to Panchayats
and elected women joining MSS
How does it operate?
It fosters awareness among women on all the above issues
through training camps, workshops and conferences and
spreading in regions by formation of MSS groups of five or ten.
It promotes neighbourhood building, peaceful settlement of
mutual conflicts, peace rallies. It encourages to join other women
groups, say self-help groups (SHG) for income generation.
MSS Updates
HDF and Unnayan (MSS Partner- Odisha)
plan a MSS Conference
Human Development Foundation and Unnayan
(MSS partner), SEEDS are organizing a State
Level MSS Conference to be held in Bhubaneswar
from February 3-6, 2012. Those interested
to participate may contact the co-organizers:
Sudarshan Das ([email protected]) and
Dr. Sri Gopal Mohanty ([email protected]).
McMaster-BHU-AUCC Students Internship
McMaster University and Banaras Hindu University
have jointly signed a 4-year project (2011-2014) with
AUCC (Association of Universities and Community
Colleges) to send student interns to India to work
in the area of “Engaging women and youth in
promoting education and reducing hunger”. The
first batch is expected to go in the summer, 2012.
Indian students will be able to come to Canada.
Shasri Indo-Canadian Institute Funds Evaluation
of MSS Development Work
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) in
collaboration with CIDA (Canadian International
Development Agency) has funded a MSS project to
take up a 10-year (2002-2012) impact assessment
of development work with women in India. Dr.
Hiranmay Dhar, V.V. Giri Institute, Lucknow, India,
has been engaged to take up this evaluation.
The evaluation will involve extensive survey of
MSS women from the various NGO partners.
A Final Report is expected by June 2012.
Connecting with Our Indian Partners
A tour of our NGO partners in the eastern (UP,
Bihar and Odisha) and north-Eastern States
(Tripura and Assam) in planned in February. Small
workshops are planned in Agartala, Kumarikata,
Patna, and Varanasi. This will be the first MSS
tour of north-eastern States after the death of
Acharya Ramamurti and Rabindra Upadhyay.
Shrambharati undergoes change of leadership
Praksh Narayan, and many others visited this centre
in its heyday. The centre has been left leaderless after
the death of Acharya Ramamurti. There is a move to
put it under the Guardianship of Serv Seva Sangh, the
national Gandhian Organization. It is of concern to
us that, Dr.Rajnarain Singh, Director of Krishi Vigyan
Kendra (Shrambharati) and one of the strongest
supports of Mahila Shanti Sena, has left Shrambharati
and has taken up another job. However, he says he
will continue doing MSS work in his new position.
MSS Partnership Proposal from
Central University of Gujarat
Professor Chandra Mohan, Special Advisor, Central
Gujarat University, Gandhi Nagar, has informed us
that Vice-Chancellor, Dr. R.K. Kale has expressed
interest in starting MSS-related work at his
University. Dr. Rama Singh will be visiting the
university during his India trip in January-February.
The 20th Anniversary of
Gandhi Peace Festival in Hamilton
The Gandhi Committee has started meeting to
plan the 20th anniversary celebration in Hamilton.
A number of events including peace march,
international speakers, workshops, roundtables,
movie nights, and community events are planned.
From Reva Joshee
“We visited two Gandhian schools in Ramanattukara,
Kerala (near Calicut). One of them was Seva Mandir,
the school that Radha Krishna Menon established in
the 1950s. We began a conversation about Gandhian
approaches to education. I will be going back in
March with a student (hopefully Karen Sihra) to
spend a week doscumenting the work at both schools.
All of this is in anticipation of working with these
schools and other Nai Talim schools across India
to develop in-service teacher education programs.”
MSS Websites:
McMaster: www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi
Gandhitopia: www.Gandhitopia.org
Shrambharati was founded on the direction of
Gandhi and it has been one of the premier Gandhian
Organizations in India. Major national personalities
such as Prime Minister Nehru, Vinoba Bhave, Jaya
3
Nobel Peace Prize Winners 2011:
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkul Karman
“THE PORTRAIT OF MAHATMA GANDHI” – Drama by Himendra Thakur
(The story of the drama)
The portrait of Mahatma Gandhi is gone! From
the living room of Manmohan Mishra ! !
Two villagers, Kishan – a ploughman – and
Pandit, the village school master, took away the
portrait from Mishra’s luxurious
New Delhi suburban mansion,
protected by ferocious security
dogs running hungrily between
the double perimeter walls
around the mansion. Manmohan
Mishra is a billionaire politician
running for his seat in the
Parliament, because he is certain
to become the next commerce
minister oflndia if elected.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, peace
activist Leymah Gbowee, and human rights activist
Tawakkul Karman have been awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize for 2011. The Nobel Prize Committee
lauded their non-violent struggle for the safety
of women and women’s rights to fully
participate in peace-building work.
The Nobel Peace Prize official
website states, “It is the
Norwegian Nobel Committee’s
hope that the prize to Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah
Gbowee and Tawakkul
Karman will help to bring
an end to the suppression of
women that still occurs in many
countries, and to realise the
great potential for democracy and
peace that women can represent.”
Karman, a 32-year-old mother who heads
the human rights group Women Journalists
without Chains, has been a leading figure in the
protests against Yemeni President Ali Abdullah
Saleh. “She is known among Yemenis as ‘the iron
woman’ and the ‘mother of the revolution,’” the
Associated Press writes. “A conservative woman
fighting for change in a conservative Muslim and
tribal society, Tawakkul Karman has been the
4
face of the mass uprising against the authoritarian
regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.”
Johnson Sirleaf, 72, is a Harvard-trained economist
who became Africa’s first democratically elected
female president in 2005. Sirleaf was
seen as a reformer and peacemaker
when she took office in Liberia, a
country ravaged by civil wars that
is still struggling to maintain a
fragile peace. The committee
cited Johnson Sirleaf’s efforts
to secure peace in her country,
promote economic and social
development and strengthen
the position of women.
Gbowee, 39, head of the
Women Peace and Security
Network, was honoured by the
Committee for mobilizing women
“across ethnic and religious dividing lines
to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and
to ensure women’s participation in elections.”
Gbowee brought together Christian and Muslim
women against the power of Liberia’s warlords.
Condensed from The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/nobelpeace-prize-winner-_n_998563.html#quiz_1614
Mishra’s future son-in-law
Rakesh studied for his MBA
degree at a prestigious foreign
University where he pursued
the teachings of Nobel Prize
Winner Dr. Amartya Sen that
Mohandas Gandhi was “working
tirelessly to oust Subhash Bose”
without “propriety or elegance”
and that Gandhi’s hand-spinning,
described as a low level mindless activity, can
survive only with government subsidies. Rakesh
follows Dr. Amartya Sen and opposes Mahatma
Gandhi. However, Mishra wants to hang the portrait
in his living room because the potential voters like
Kishan and Pandit love the Mahatma. They are
coming to meet Mishra at his mansion. Rakesh sees
these poor people as unwanted over-population
oflndia, whose children are to be quarried for the
lucrative organ transplantation business and whose
land parcels are to be grabbed through Special
Economic Zone Laws to build chemical plants and
automobile plants for multi-national companies.
Mishra’s twenty three year old daughter was named
Sarojini by her Bengali grandmother after the name
of Sarojini Chattopaddhyai, an ardent Gandhi disciple
early in the last century. The young Sarojini in
the drama does not agree with her fiance, Rakesh.
She is !;till in grief for her deceased grandmother,
who told her stories of Mahatma Gandhi, taught
her how to spin with hand and
taught her to sing the Mahatma’s
favourite verse “tena tyaktena
bhunjeethah” from Isha Upanishad.
Sarojini defeats the arguments of
Rakesh, but fails to persuade him.
She finds solace by talking with
the old house-servant Ramu, a
Dalit, who tells her his childhood
stories of seeing the Mahatma. At
a cut-to angle, we see that Ramu’s
grandson, ten year old Apu, who is
hiding in the servants’ quarters, is
convinced of becoming a “Crorepati”
by selling the organs of his torso.
Another anti-Gandhi campaigner,
Nathuram Godse, the assassin, is
seen in the drama through his cousin
Gobin who comes with an AKC Rifle
to shoot the Mahatma one more time.
He shoots at the portrait making one
more bullet hole on Gandhi’s chest. Begging for life,
Rakesh and Mishra kneel down to terrorist Gobin, but
he is overpowered and tied up by Kishan and Ramu.
The villagers leave Mishra’s luxurious New
Delhi suburban mansion with the Portrait of
Mahatma Gandhi over their head. ln a hurry to
join Pandit and Kishan, Ramu, the old houseservant, quits his job and runs after them.
Surprisingly, Sarojini also leaves her father’s
New Delhi mansion. and joins the villagers. She
tells her father that she is going back to India.
Editor’s Note:
Himendra Thakur has written an interesting and thought provoking, and very timely, play on Gandhi. The play
was produced and staged in Delhi in 2007. We are printing the book face and the drama story here in the hope
that some one will become interested in producing it. I would be very much interested in helping to stage if
it can be produced. If you are interested, please get in touch with me or Himendra: ([email protected]).
The material presented in this article are those of the author, not of Mahila Shanti Sena. We take no responsibility.
5
Menaka Thakkar
Sri Gopal Mohanty
I met Menaka Thakkar at Waterloo,Ontario in 1971, the year
she came to Canada. It was at a cultural function of the local
Indian community. She performed two short items, a Bharata
Natyam piece and an Odissi piece. Her presentation was at odds
with the remaining performances in the evening. Exposure of
India’s rich tradition of classical dances among the then
Indian community was very limited. She was sowing
seeds for new appreciation and understanding of
India’s heritage of classical dances in a foreign
soil. I was a keen appreciative witness.
So a new journey began. She moved from
community to community, from University to
University - McMaster, Brock, Waterloo, Toronto,
York, McGill to name a few - and presented a
complete repertoire of Bharatnatyam and Odissi.
In her effort to increase the appreciation she was
dedicated and persistent in sowing more seeds and
transplanting throughout Canada. It became her life’s
primary ambition. She became an Indian Cultural
Ambassador in Canada. In her adventure I could
feel her everlasting confidence and boundless zeal.
Menaka Realized the process of transplantation
and propagation needed to establish dance schools
and she started her own - Nrtyakals, the very
first school in her newly adopted home
country. The seeds started germinating with
fresh new buds and leaves. Soon I took
my daughter to join her school. I was
mostly impressed by her commitment to
the tradition of Guru-Shishya relation.
Yet she learnt how to adapt to the
teaching method of her newly adopted
country. It was a daunting challenge
indeed. Menaka did it with firmness and
affectionate smile and became Menaka Didi to all her students.
Menaka’s strong faith in Guru-Shishya tradition
made her to pay tributes to her Gurus by inviting
them to Canada and showcasing them.
If Menaka has to see her transplantation to take healthy roots and
produce colorful blossoms she has to have a dance company
and she did precisely that. And there came Menaka Thakkar
Dance Company and her creative productions like
Sitayana, Monkey and Crocodile, Geeta Govindam,
Patanu Pradesh. She also experimented with pure
expressive dances - Tagore’s Karna Kunti is one
such powerful production performed by her.
There was a period when Menaka became a
synonym to Indian culture. Besides receiving
many recognitions and awards, she was conferred
an honorary degree by York University.
Has Menaka’s artistic creativity ever stopped
with her well rooted Indian tradition? No, rather
she is going strong day by day and year after
year. Her open mindedness in understanding
other dance styles prompted her to learn
and experiment on fusion of eastern and
western dances. Among some of her fusion
productions, Shapes and Rythms stands out.
I and my family feel very fortunate to consider
her and other members of her family like brother
Rashesh and sister Sudha as part of our family.
On her seventieth birth anniversary, I salute her for her
pioneering contribution of transplanting India’s rich
heritage in a foreign soil which became her new home.
May she be blessed to continue her journey for ever.
Menaka Thakkar Dance Company
The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company is a
not-for-profit charitable organization founded in
1978 by Artistic Director Menaka Thakkar, making it
the first Indian dance company in Canada. The company
includes up to 20 professional dancers who have each
studied with Dr. Thakkar from 16 to 26 years at her school
Nrtyakala—The Canadian Academy of Indian dance. Dancer,
choreographer, institution builder and teacher, Menaka Thakkar
has won many awards and honours in her long career including
an honourary doctorate from York University, 2006 City of Toronto
Face the Arts Cultural Maverick Award for Dance, Toronto Arts
Award for Performing Arts,President’s Award from Indo-Canada
Chamber of Commerce and Tri-National Creative Residency Award
from the Canada-Mexico joint program administered by the
National Endowment for the Arts, USA. Menaka Thakkar is a 2011
finalist for the prestigious Ontario Premiere’s Award for Excellence
in the Arts. Her groundbreaking choreographies since coming to
Canada which reflect both her exposure to western dance styles
6
and her background in classical Indian dance. The
Company presents an annual home season in Toronto
and tours nationally or internationally every year.
Nrtyakala - The Canadian Academy of Indian Dance is
a not-for-profit charitable organization founded in 1975 by
Artistic Director Dr. Menaka Thakkar. As the first school of Indian
dance in Canada, Nrtyakala has operated uninterruptedly for 36
years and has grown to become a major Canadian institution
where students of diverse cultural backgrounds are trained
in the classical and contemporary traditions of Indian dance.
Nrtyakala is a national dance school located in Thornhill and
Brampton which has trained dancers from across the country
as performers and teachers of Bharatanatyam, Odissi and other
specialized training such as kalariapayattu, chhau and aerial.
For more information about Menaka Thakkar
Dance Company & Nrtyakala Please visit www.
menakathakkardance.org and www.nrtyakala.org