Today is my second morning in India after my journey across the Atlantic to London and then on to Delhi where I arrived just before midnight on Tuesday. What a change in the Indira Gandhi airport since I was here nearly four years ago - it's all so new and spacious! I've settled into the Dan and Clover Home, a vegetarian bread and breakfast type lodging very close to a community park that is great for walking. On Wednesday I visited the last day of the India Habitat Centre's exhibit "Walking, a dialogue between art and social movement" and I met the photographer, Simon Williams. Simon told me about British Quakers' support of "Action Village India," a small British charity which includes supporting Ekta Parishad's work in India. The coordinator of the exhibit, Fran Wilde, told me how grateful she was to the British Quaker family - the Cadburys - for their financial support of this exhibit on the work of the Ekta Parishad Gandhians. I learned that Jai Ran Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development, is negotiating right now with Ekta Parishad to convince them to have the landless and tribal marchers (originally hoped to be 100,000) return home instead of continuing their walk northward from Agra (where they are now) to Delhi.
There are some remarkable parallels between the landless and Tribal people's current Jansatyagraha March and nonviolent direct action work that we see among Palestinians and also our own son's nonviolent direct action against the New York Police Department's "Stop and Frisk" law that targets Blacks and Latinos. Morgan and three other activists are facing a jury trial in Queens this week for civil disobedience that they did about a year ago in a Queens (NYC) police department. All three of these nonviolent direct actions are coming together for me right now. It seems like a good lesson in the power of nonviolent direct action, especially when it is spirit led from the heart as all three of these on-going actions are.
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine on Saturday and Sunday (6-7 Oct) in New York was powerful. Ian, Morgan, Susan and I all participated and we learned a lot. What becomes increasingly clearer is the extent to which both the Israeli and U.S. governments work hard to make their unjust actions against Palestinians seem just and also how the Israeli and American governments work equally hard to make their illegal actions in Palestine seem legal. I learned that from an articulate speaker, Diane Butta, who is the daughter of Palestinian-Canadians. She was so persuasive as she talked to the "jury" in the Russell Tribunal. There are those who say the same thing about the central government's actions here in Delhi against the people of Kashmir. What is striking is the extent to which the military in this country have learned their way of controlling what they view as insurgents in Kashmir directly from military officials in Israel who control the militarily occupied territories in Palestine.
Meanwhile, here are current plans for our India Friends Working Group delegation. Jack arrives in India on Monday night (15 Oct) and he and I will be staying at the Aurobindo Ashram. Then Samantha and Randy arrive on Friday evening (19 Oct); Archana is also arriving at the Aurobindo ashram on Friday. On Saturday afternoon we will meet with Subba Rao, India's leading Gandhian who spoke with our delegation of Wilmington Friends School students in 2009. Mr. Rao will be returning to Delhi on Saturday morning from peace work he has been doing in Assam. Then on Sunday we will worship with the Delhi Friends Worship Group, and on Monday (22 Oct) we travel south to Bhopal by shatabdi. We are very much looking forward to the All India Friends Gathering in Itarsi and the Young Adult work/Study camp that follows.
(posted by Scott on Thursday morning, 11 Oct)
No comments:
Post a Comment