CONTACT SOUTH ASIA 2014

SIT’s CONTACT Programme: Where South Asia lives and learns together

The SIT Graduate Institute’s annual CONTACT programme in Nepal is a platform for people from across South Asia to bond with and learn from each other.

It was the 16th of December when I landed in Delhi from Nepal. On seeing news about the dastardly killing of innocent school children in Peshawar, I wondered how my identity as a South Asian had undergone immense transformation during the past two weeks as a participant of The SIT Graduate Institute’s CONTACT (Conflict Transformation Across Cultures) programme in Kathmandu. I suddenly became more sensitive to my identity as a South Asian, pained at what was happening to my region.

The nature of the attack in Peshawar shook me, since it was only a day before that I parted ways with my South Asian friends, pledging to work in solidarity for peace. My arrival from Nepal and this news reaffirmed the fact that there was a long way to go before South Asia could achieve peace, harmony, development, justice, and other ideals that we had been deliberating over the past two weeks.

SIT’s (School for International Training) South Asia programme in Kathmandu, aptly titled CONTACT, was a unique opportunity for South Asians to experience and live through multiculturalism, friendships, and cross-country bonding over a period of two weeks in residence. The programme brought together over 40 participants from the South Asian region for a professional training in peace-building and conflict resolution. Since the past five years, the institute has been conducting this programme in Nepal (perceived as a neutral venue for South Asians to meet and interact with each other).

The training module this year comprised of courses in peace-building, conflict resolution, peace mediation, arts and peace-building, memories of war and the use of theatre to convey intricacies related to conflict and peace. Taught by expert faculty, participants hailed from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet.

CONTACT SOUTH ASIA 2014 participants
Picture: Julie Orfirer

After the Peshwar attack, the hashtag #IndiawithPakistan gained momentum on social media. Through this, it was heartening to witness a culmination of what I learnt over the past two weeks. That India and Pakistan along with the entire region stood united in wake of this attack was something that I personally experienced. There was an outpouring of solidarity notes and messages from friends in the region. In this tragedy, we stood more committed in our belief to combat extremist ideologies in each of our countries to realize the vision built for the region during the programme.

Year by year, CONTACT offers a unique experience for South Asians who probably have limited opportunities of connecting and communicating with each other. Students, activists, media professionals, lawyers, academics, NGO professionals, freelancers, and researchers are among those who participate in this melting pot kind of experience. For many, it is the first time that they meet someone from a country other than their own in the region. That first impression, the first meeting paves way for everlasting friendships.

This year’s CONTACT programme provided for a unique blend of arts and peace-building. With a noted theatre teacher and an artist as facilitators, participants employed their creative skills to carve expressions of peace and conflict in their respective communities and countries. Sessions on conflict mapping, conflict analysis, strategizing a non-violent advocacy movement, free whiling sharing sessions on participant’s own experiences of conflict, role play exercises in peace mediation, building art collages to symbolize conflict and peace, and showcasing documentaries and videos from conflict zones around the world were part of the programme. Guest sessions included perspective building on media’s role in conflict.

Apart from a flurry of intellectual engagements, the CONTACT programme let participants soak in cultural experiences, pursue informal discussions on relevant socio-political issues, build bonds over song, dance and cultural presentations and connect to each other as part of group activities. Perspective building emerged as an important part of the programme since there were differences, debates, discussions and several contentions put forward. The shared vision though was of peace as imperative for South Asia’s development, peace that belongs to people and is not hostage to political elites and power.

By the end of the programme, participants began questioning deeply entrenched stereotypes, narrow versions of nationalism to develop a holistic understanding of complex issues that plague the region. On the final day, participants watched a recorded version of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony with Indians cheering for Malala and Pakistanis for Satyarthi.

CONTACT was a perfect opportunity for South Asians to live and learn together, transcending barriers of nationality, language, race and religion. It foregrounded an innovative blend of theory and practice in peace and conflict studies, from which every participant could take back something meaningful to their own conflicts in their own communities. Conflicts in South Asia are complex. South Asians can unravel, simplify and learn to manage conflicts by getting to meet, know, and talk. An experiential learning process made a concept as complicated as conflict interesting for CONTACT participants. At the end of two weeks of learning, give and take, experience; participants utilized an integration day to share, reflect, capitalize and network for future prospects in the field.

In the midst of hectic sessions, participants also explored local Nepalese culture and cuisine, busy markets, landmark monuments probably knowing that meeting again and spending time like this would be a distant dream. Filled with emotional, intellectual and hands-on skills, I grew to be a more sensitive human being in those two weeks of cross cultural interaction and imbibed a completely different meaning of peace. Peace is essential, desirable and achievable. Peace is team work and collaboration. Peace is acceptance and friendship. In a region afflicted by conflicts of grave consequences, this kind of CONTACT can go a long way in strengthening South Asia’s resolve to successfully confront challenges in the region.

To mobilize or to polarize? Social Media in Mandate 2014

As the countdown to India’s general elections draws nearer, apart from the usual range of issues that have dominated the political discourse, the role of social media is being keenly debated. With over 93 million users on Facebook and an estimated 33 million on Twitter (India's social media election battle, March 2014); the use of social media platforms is now beyond connecting with friends and acquaintances. In the general elections of 2009, the role of social media in mobilizing public opinion was marginal. This time it is unprecedented and difficult to ignore. With every political player now in the social media domain, it might even account for being a crucial factor in the present elections. The social media space has inevitably turned ‘political’ with major political actors in fray roping in expert services to promote their candidates on social media. Political parties are seen making every single attempt to stay in the electoral limelight by ‘trending’ on Twitter or ‘liking’ on Facebook. The impetus for this also seems to be a large number of young voters who are being influenced through social media. This is an interesting trend in itself because just a few years back the ‘political’ character of social media was debatable. Today, what we see on social media are posts, videos, comments emerging as sources of political knowledge. Certainly, there has been a transition in the way social media has reinvented itself as a medium this time around. Google hangouts, official pages of political parties, fan pages, voter awareness campaigns and voting ‘selfies’ speak much about the transition in Indian politics. However, the path ahead remains challenging.

To a large extent, social media has also contributed to polarizing opinions in the present political discourse. It is on social media that political battle-lines are being drawn with heated pro and against contentions, counter contentions and a daily dose of political passions and emotions. It is as if the electoral battle has now moved from the ‘realpolitik’ domain to the social media space. While a basic feature of the medium is free expression, participation and immediacy of feedback (which contributes to the expansion of democratic debate), the current debating scene on social media reeks of political shrill, political abuse and a kind of intolerance for diverse opinions. Users do not stop at commenting/debating as they express contempt and disdain for political opinions that may differ from theirs. Openly expressing one’s affiliation to a political ideology or choice of a particular party/candidate may invite the wrath of friends and acquaintances who subscribe to a different set of ideas. Trolling, political sarcasm, mudslinging, levelling of accusations has vitiated the atmosphere on social media forums. Users have been clearly divided into ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ camps (users can be seen subscribing to terms such as AAPtards, CONGtards, Fekus, etc) with little perspective in place. This certainly cannot be a healthy trend in a democratic set up. Though Manan Pathak, student Tata Institute of Social Sciences disagrees, “Polarization as against mobilization is not really an attribute of social media. The attribute of social media is to mobilize; whether or not to get polarized is the onus of the people. Rigidity and dynamism on part of the people determine whether polarization occurs. Social media is a platform to inform, share, discuss, debate, express and form views, and the views ideally should not be absolute but they should be dynamic based on rational decision making.”

Much political shrill that is generated on social media is leading to a loss of debate on pertinent and real issues that an election should ideally be about. A sort of obsession with candidates, political personalities, political camps and ideologies has resulted into a watering down of political debate. Kirthi Jayakumar, lawyer cum writer from Chennai says, “On the one hand, the speed with which information is passed and the outlets that are available reveal a clear and strong tool for the propagation and streamlining of public opinion. But, the same is also a disadvantage in that it is beginning to set people apart from one another through the polarisation of the masses. It is also alarming that people are not respecting the right to choose and the element of secrecy in a secret ballot method. Imposing voting ideas on another individual is both, inappropriate and unbefitting.”

So to what extent can the information being circulated in social media zones be trusted? Is it credible? When information goes viral, how does one differentiate between facts and propaganda? After all groups operating in social media may be no different than interests group with a purpose. Would it be some kind of an exaggeration to claim that what we witness on social media can claim to represent the ‘real’ voices of ‘real’ people? There are no easy answers. Undoubtedly social media makes the political sphere a bit transparent but it is bereft of any kind of accountability and hence the chances of misinformation do exist. Also not to be confused is the political participation on social media and its translation into real time voting. Kiran Bhatia, student at The M.S.University of Baroda believes that while first time voters indeed have received great amount of exposure towards the election process through social media, there are also naïve and amateur users who may not care to verify the authenticity of the information presented among the huge chunk of content in circulation. She puts this aptly - “We should not flow with the flow, but deliberate and decide whether the flow is genuine or not.”

Not to be dismissive of social media’s influence on Mandate 2014, one has to admit that social media does inspire a multi-mode channel of communication and may end up playing a more than anticipated role in one’s choice of political representation. The positive side is already evident through the extensive outreach of voter awareness campaigns cum appeals – a clarion call to voters of the world’s largest democracy. Since, the election period is a temporary one and so may be the polarization; though one is left wondering as to what will social media debate about after May 16!

The article was published on Canary Trap (www.canarytrap.in) on April 28, 2014

http://www.canarytrap.in/2014/04/28/to-mobilize-or-to-polarize-social-media-in-mandate-2014/