8 International Literacy Day
21 International Peace Day
28 Shankar Guha Niyogi Martyrdom Day
We share a selected list of information and communication resources with you in this mailer, details of which can be seen on the blog. Several other titles also available, write in with your orders!
This month we have several events lined up from film screenings to a panel discussion and music, dance and martial arts festival titled 'Interpretations on Peace and Conflict', here in New Delhi.
We welcome your requests and feedback, so that we can respond to make this process of sharing more useful.
warm wishes for the month
Kritians
A Prophet Facing Forward, by Meera Nanda / Critical Quest / New Delhi/ 2006 (Contribution: Rs.20.00)
In this essay, the author hopes to bring a light to a remarkable confluence between dalits’ aspirations for freedom, and the Americans pragmatist call for subjecting all inherited values to the test of scientific method
Accords, peace processes and prospects of civil society peace initiatives, by North East Peoples’ Initiative /Guwahati / 2007 (Contribution: Rs.100.00)
This book presents a report of north east regional seminar on Accords, peace processes and prospects of civil society peace initiatives
Child slaves in modern India, by Lee Tucker / Critical Quest / New Delhi/ 2006 (Contribution: Rs.30.00)
Lee Tucker in this essay talks about ‘the context of bonded child labors’, the ‘domestic legal standards’ by the constitution and people and precisely the children in bondage.
Free to be human, by David Edwards /The Viveka Foundation/ New Delhi/ 2002 (Contribution: Rs.200.00)
This book is about freedom, and above all the idea that thee is often no greater obstacle to freedom than the assumption that it’s has already been fully attainted. While in the west few individuals today suffer physical restraints by the state, we are still constrained by powerful psychological chains which are in many ways far more effective, if only because they are so difficult to perceive. Free to be humans shows how the same filter system distorts our understanding of many personal, ethical and spiritual issues ensuring that we remain passive conformist, confused, uninformed and willing to accept the irrational values of corporate consumerism.
1000 Peace Women Across the Globe, by Ruth-Gaby Vermot- Mangold / KONTRAST book / Switzerland/ 2005 (Contribution: Rs.1500.00)
1000 Peace call for reconciliation, transform conflict, risk their live for their community, educate advocate for the poor, stand for human rights, create alternative income, care for and re-integrate HI/AIDS affected persons, restore justice, fight for access to land, ask fro political rights, and find solution against violence. Coming from more than 150 different countries, they are all led by imagination, confidence and unflattering optimism and were nominated for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.
Manifestos for making another world possible!, by CACIM / Vikas Adhanyan Kendra/ New Delhi/ 2004 (Contribution: Rs.100.00)
Committee for abolition of THIRD WROLD Debt (CADTM): born n Belgium in 1990, the CADTM is an international network constituted by members and local committees based in Europe, Africa, south America and Asia. The CADTM, militate for people’s sovereignty, international solidarity and social justice. From its principal claim, the abolition of the public debt of the Third World countries and countries of transition, it works towards aiming at the universal satisfaction of the basic rights.
Nandigram- What Really Happened ?, Report of the People’s Tribunal on Nandigram / DAANISH BOOKS /New Delhi / 2007 (Contribution: Rs.225.00 (with CD) Rs. 175.00 (without CD))
Nandigram: what really happened is an important read to understand the gradually merging police-state in India with corporations, political parties, state institutes and criminal elements joining hands to put down all forms of resistance by citizens to their agenda of ‘loot and garb’ development.
Our Diary 2008, by Kriti team (Contribution: Rs.75.00)
This edition covers features on activists from different movements across India whose lives ended in the process of struggle for human rights, freedom and social justice.
Surviving Growing Up, by Comet Media Foundation (Contribution: Rs.200.00)
Adolescence is a time when we embark on a new journey, ripe with the potential for learning and self -discovery. The first indications of adulthood come to us with the changes in our bodies. These changes also effect how we feel about ourselves. We begin to recognize the interdependence required in all social interactions and start taking responsibility for our actions. The compilation of many people's thoughts on coming of age and young adulthood, this book has evolved over a long time. Streams of knowledge came from the experience of teachers and counselors in schools, several adolescents, doctors, psychologists, feminists, activists concerned with sexual minorities and many others.
The Noose is Tightening, by Minati Dash /Popular Education and Action Centre (PEACE) / New Delhi/ 2004 (Contribution: Rs.20.00)
This book provides an overlook on agreements of Indian agriculture and WTO and how development can go with it. Also has much section on improving agriculture services- under GATS preview and many other articles on productively of the and in India for agriculture.
The Red Flower, by Safdar Hashmi & Illustrations by Mona Rai / SAHMAT /New Delhi/ 2007 (Contribution: Rs. 50.00)
The very subtle poems by Safdar hashmi and the very detailed drawing my Mona Rai is a must read on this peace day to bring in the peace initiative all across, just in the same way as the red flower shines across its color all over.
You are therefore I am-a declaration of dependence, by Satish Kumar/ The Viveka Foundation / New Delhi/ 2002 (Contribution: Rs.200.00)
This book races the spiritual journey of Satish Kumar- child monk peace pilgrim, ecological activist and educator. In it he traces the sources of inspiration which formed his understanding of the world as a network of multiple and diverse relationships. ‘You are therefore I am’. This mantra underpins all the experiences brought together in this book.
Documentary Films
Thousand days and a dream, by P.Baburaj & C.Saratchandaran/ 77 Min/ Eng (Contributions (VCD): Students – Rs.150.00 Individuals – Rs.250 Organizations – Rs.350.00)
A film on the four and a half years old anti-Coca Cola struggle in Plachimada, Kerala, India. Perhaps, no other agitation in recent times in Kerala has attracted national and global attention like this one. The film captures the spirit of the struggle, traces the history and discusses the several issues raised by the struggle. It also documents the poignant moments of the struggle and shares the dreams and sorrows of some of the active participants of the struggle.
People audit to fight corruption, by MKSS/ 17 mins/Hindi with English subtitles (Contribution (VCD) - Individuals /Organizations – Rs.300.00)
The Right to Information campaign had a modest beginning as an effort to document that the Government of Rajasthan was failing to pay minimum wages to workers engaged in employment generation programs. When government officials were asked by the MKSS to explain their failure to pay minimum wages, they claimed that the wage rolls and the Project Engineer's Measurement Books showed that the correct dues had been paid to the workers in question. Through these efforts, the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information was formed; this group subsequently led the struggle for right to information in other states of India.
America America, by K.P.Sasi/ 4 mins/ English (Contribution (VCD) - Students – Rs.100.00 Individuals – Rs.150.00 Organizations – Rs.250.00)
This is an anti-war music video. Based on Kamaan Singh Dhami's anti-war song "American war paar da!" (Check out the American war!), the 4 minute music video is a satirical but severe indictment of America's role in escalating world conflict. The song is set to the tune of the popular Sinhalese song "Surangini" and has English lyrics and a catchy chorus in Tamil. Dancing sometimes on Bush's shoulder, sometimes on the roof of Washington's White House, and sometimes in a colourful parade of children protesting against war, dancer Malavika Tara Mohanan embodies the indomitable spirit of resistance and satire..
DVD 1, Films by Ajay TG (Contribution (DVD: Students / Individuals /Organizations – Rs.500.00)
New State; Old problems (10mins 43sec / 2008 / English narration) - A compilation from Chhattisgarhi films made by Margaret Dickinson to introduce Ajay TG’s Anjam. It gives some of the background to Ajay’s arrest, including brief introductions to the State of Chhattisgarh, the Chhattisgarh Mukhti Morcha, the Naxalites and Salwa Judum.
Anjam / Original Version (20 mins 41 sec / 2007-8) - Documentary about Binayak Sen
Anjam / English Version (20 mins 41 sec / 2007-8) - Documentary about Binayak Sen
DVD 5, Films by Ajay TG (Contribution (DVD: Students / Individuals /Organizations – Rs.500.00)
Letters and Learning / English subtitles (41mins / 2003) - This film is about an elderly Satnami who got a job in the Bhilai Steel Plant in return for giving up land, and how he prospered, enabling his daughter to become a school teacher and his granddaughter a doctor. Ajay got to know him when working as Jonathan Parry’s field assistant. This Jandarshan student film is not only a biography, but also a critique of attitudes to literacy and knowledge.
DVD 7, Films by Ajay TG (Contribution (DVD): Students / Individuals /Organizations – Rs.500.00)
The Other Side of the Mirror (7mins 26sec) - Extract of unfinished film which links a critique of Indian chauvinism with the contrast between the education of rich and poor children and then introduces the bal angan which Ajay started.
Essa Kyon? (1mins 51sec / 2007 / Original Language) - Short drama devised and shot by girls at the school run by Ajay TG. The brief was to focus on an issue which affects them. In this film they chose discrimination in education. It was to have been the first of a series of such short dramas on various issues but the project has been interrupted by Ajay’s imprisonment.
Photographs (5 mins 57 sec / 2007) - A sequence of stills taken by girls in the school Ajay runs, put in order and set to music.
In the Memory of Friends, by Anand Patwardhan/ 60 mins/ English and Hindi (Contribution (VCD): Individuals – Rs.200.00 Organizations – Rs.1000.00)
A film on the efforts of a group of Sikhs and Hindus to rebuild communal harmony in the violence-riven Punjab of the 80's by reminding people of the secular legacy of the legendary martyr Bhagat Singh who fought both for India's independence as well as values.
Naga Story, by Gopal Menon / 64 mins/ With English subtitles (Contribution (VCD): Individuals – Rs.500.00 Organizations – Rs.1000.00)
A film that captures the resistance, the despair, the anguish, the hopes and aspirations of a generation of Nagas in their struggle for self-determination and their overwhelming desire for Peace.
From Kalinga to Kashipur, by Biju Toppo & Meghnath/ 24 mins / Local languages and Hindi, with English subtitles and overvoice (Contribution (VCD): Student /Individuals /Organizations – Rs.250.00)
People's struggle against an aluminium factory in the Kashipur, Orissa
Another Revolt, by Shri Prakash / 40 mins/ English (Contribution (VCD): Individuals – Rs.500.00 Organizations – Rs.1000.00)
A film that documents the struggle against the Koel Karo dam in Jharkhand and marks the first such movement against dams and the displacement caused by them in the country.
Music
Unorthodoxies: Reimagining Meera, Voice and composition: Shubha Mudgal (Contribution (Audio CD): Rs.400.00)
Most stories have two tracks: His and hers. The Meera story, however, has always run on mono. Its is, doubtless, an amazing tale: the love-crazed princes claimed she was betrothed to a god, a god less than the Gita-God, Lord Shri Krishna himself. And what of her husband, Prince Bhojraj, the heir apparent of Meera? Well, what of him? He just become a void, a blank; a hiatus in history. But on this album you are going to hear the Meera story in full stereo sound and high fidelity. Meera will sing and you will hear Bhojraj tell his side of the tale.
Kausalya Manjeshwar – Jaipur atrauli gayaki (Contribution (Audio CD): Rs. 200.00)
This album contains seven tracks featuring live concert recordings of Kausalya Manjeshwar, senior disciple of the eminent Jaipur-Atrauli vocalist Mogubai Kurdikar. Although Kausalya Manjeshwar did not take to music as a professional career, she treated the art as a serious pursuit. She later went on to teach subtleties of the Jaipur-Atrauli gayaki to students.
Swadheenta Samar Geet- Songs from the Indian freedom moment, Voice and composition: Shubha Mudgal & Aneesh Pradhan (Contribution (Audio CD): Rs. 250.00)
The role of music and poetry in the India’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule is evident from the scores of songs that were popular among the masses. These songs, rich in political rhetoric and social messages, utilized folk tunes or especially composed melodies, but the texts found today are unfortunately not accompanied by musical notation. This album is an attempt to musically reconstruct a historical timeframe. In order to represent the period in a truer fashion, no attempt has been made to colour the instrumentation for the songs with modern electronic instruments. The accompanying booklet gives details about the historical context in which these songs were written and several other details. Some archival photographs are also included in the booklet.
Be the Change, by Susmit Bose/ 2007 (Contribution (Audio CD): Rs. 250.00)
This is another firebrand album that takes on some of these issues slap on, urging the world to get off the fence and do something about the state of affairs. Mixed with more instrumentation and multiple vocals, the music has a rock-swing feel to it. An interesting blend of the analogue and the digital and acoustic instruments, the album has a live concert feel to it. The last track is a traditional Indian song and Gandhi's favorite, Vaishnava Janato, accompanied by the pakhawaj and the manjira.
Public Issue, by Susmit Bose/ 2005 (Contribution (Audio CD): Rs. 195.00)
The world over, musicians and poets have responded to social and political change, at times in a rebellious mood and on other occasions in celebration. This album is a collection of songs in English, sung and composed by Susmit Bose, a Delhi-based musician, who has for long been giving voice to his thoughts on the social milieu he finds himself in.
Information is Power! We share it, You can access it! (Kriti team)
Contact us: +91-11-26027845/ 26033088 Email: space.kriti@gmail.com/ kinfoplace@krititeam.org
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