Friday January 4
Our day started with a lecture of Mrs. Butalia, the author of "The other side of silence". She spoke about how the Muslims and Hindus suffered during the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the same year that India proclaimed independent from England. Thousands of people were forced to choose either live in India and be Hindus or live in Pakistan and be Muslim. She then described why she was particular interest in write such a book and how she started. Not only her family had witnessed that time but also she worked as a reporter interviewing the survivors of the Partition helping them to find their losten relatives or friends. I believe that for as scholars and new to India it is very important to study India's political currently treatises. We finally can comprehend why some Muslims might hate Hindus or why India is a secular country as opposed to Pakistan which is a religious nation. We also learned how Gandhi, the India liberator started the Salt campaign which lead to the proclamation of India's Independence.
Butalia moves on to why she advocate feminism and how it is linked to the partition. Women were used to get goods or money by man during the marriage arrangement. The results were terrific. Women killing started so that man could get a second wife and gain more power or money. Then, equally horrific was when women were raped or used by her family in order to obtain money through sexual favors during the disration migration. Rural communities were immigrating to the cities and unable to get jobs.
In the eighties woman also suffered injustices because the advanced of technology introduced the ultrasound machines. Their were used as a way of families to choose the male babies and begin a massive killing of female ones. Such idea was based on the believe of religious where a father must choose a son in order to pass on its legacy.
Butalia concludes saying that her goal is to show how tha partition affected and still does affect many people's lives. As she exemplifies, the results of such a unfair separation many of them today are homeless. Many lost or had their loved ones missing. Women were raped or forced to marry man other then their own religious believe. She helped then to find their relatives during her reporting work and now she still does by lecturing about it and letting the world now about such a cruelty.
I particularly enjoyed her speech because I learned about another country history other then mine.
Our second speaker was mister Gosway. He really touched students heart and kept their attention. He spoke about the role of religion in India. He talks about how people need to make a parallel progress in the external and internal world. He says that if you believe that everything around yourself is Divine and when you ignore the desires of posses ion you might reach the level of consciousness. The "Brahman" consciousness where you can experience but you can't describe it. "Be guided by thyself" it is the major believe. You are the truth and the ruler. If you know yourself you will decipher the mistery of the Universe. ( I loved this one) The way to know yourself is to reach the Ultimate reality: a progress and balance of the external and the internal world ." He then specifies ways to obtain a balance. The term "YOGA" is one of them. Its meaning has been misinterpraty now days but It truly means a combination of a health body, pure mind and an illuminate intelligence." He preaches how religion is realization, it is being and becoming. "The whole world is a family", he says so that all religion search for the welfare of all.
It was an amazing day. We headed out to a market and enjoy the wide variety of Kashmir scarves and similar. The group purchased almost the whole place. WHAT A TRIP!!!!
More to come...
Our day started with a lecture of Mrs. Butalia, the author of "The other side of silence". She spoke about how the Muslims and Hindus suffered during the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the same year that India proclaimed independent from England. Thousands of people were forced to choose either live in India and be Hindus or live in Pakistan and be Muslim. She then described why she was particular interest in write such a book and how she started. Not only her family had witnessed that time but also she worked as a reporter interviewing the survivors of the Partition helping them to find their losten relatives or friends. I believe that for as scholars and new to India it is very important to study India's political currently treatises. We finally can comprehend why some Muslims might hate Hindus or why India is a secular country as opposed to Pakistan which is a religious nation. We also learned how Gandhi, the India liberator started the Salt campaign which lead to the proclamation of India's Independence.
Butalia moves on to why she advocate feminism and how it is linked to the partition. Women were used to get goods or money by man during the marriage arrangement. The results were terrific. Women killing started so that man could get a second wife and gain more power or money. Then, equally horrific was when women were raped or used by her family in order to obtain money through sexual favors during the disration migration. Rural communities were immigrating to the cities and unable to get jobs.
In the eighties woman also suffered injustices because the advanced of technology introduced the ultrasound machines. Their were used as a way of families to choose the male babies and begin a massive killing of female ones. Such idea was based on the believe of religious where a father must choose a son in order to pass on its legacy.
Butalia concludes saying that her goal is to show how tha partition affected and still does affect many people's lives. As she exemplifies, the results of such a unfair separation many of them today are homeless. Many lost or had their loved ones missing. Women were raped or forced to marry man other then their own religious believe. She helped then to find their relatives during her reporting work and now she still does by lecturing about it and letting the world now about such a cruelty.
I particularly enjoyed her speech because I learned about another country history other then mine.
Our second speaker was mister Gosway. He really touched students heart and kept their attention. He spoke about the role of religion in India. He talks about how people need to make a parallel progress in the external and internal world. He says that if you believe that everything around yourself is Divine and when you ignore the desires of posses ion you might reach the level of consciousness. The "Brahman" consciousness where you can experience but you can't describe it. "Be guided by thyself" it is the major believe. You are the truth and the ruler. If you know yourself you will decipher the mistery of the Universe. ( I loved this one) The way to know yourself is to reach the Ultimate reality: a progress and balance of the external and the internal world ." He then specifies ways to obtain a balance. The term "YOGA" is one of them. Its meaning has been misinterpraty now days but It truly means a combination of a health body, pure mind and an illuminate intelligence." He preaches how religion is realization, it is being and becoming. "The whole world is a family", he says so that all religion search for the welfare of all.
It was an amazing day. We headed out to a market and enjoy the wide variety of Kashmir scarves and similar. The group purchased almost the whole place. WHAT A TRIP!!!!
More to come...
