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.

The dawn of a special friendship

Published at Friendships Across Borders: Aao Dosti Karein - A forum that encourages and nurtures cross-border friendships.

Nidhi Shendurnikar Tere from Vadodara, India, writes about her friendship with Sehr Nisar who is from Larkana and currently studies in Lahore, Pakistan

It was in February 2014, when an email from Kirthi Jayakumar at The Red Elephant Foundation, Chennai delighted me to no end. It announced my selection to the Building Peace Project (2014-15), a yearlong peace initiative between Indians and Pakistanis dedicated to connecting young people on both sides of the border through new media. Ever since I had started working for my doctoral thesis on India-Pakistan conflict and the media’s role, I had been in touch with many people from across the border, and had experienced the warmth and generosity of cross-border friendships. However, I longed for sustained interactions with someone who could introduce me to the Pakistan I had never learnt of before. I wished to go beyond an academic and intellectual pursuit of the domain in which I was working, and experience the fruits of friendship with a person who shared my belief in peace. I was delighted when Kirthi told me that my partner in the peace project would be Sehr Nisar, and we would be engaged in the project as peacebuilders.

Since the beginning of the project, Sehr, who is a student at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has carved a special place in my life. There is not a single day when she is not fondly remembered. Though we have not met each other, our continued association for the project, our conversations on Facebook, and the video chatting sessions on Skype have become so integral to my life that it is difficult to conceive of anything but a mutual feeling of lifelong friendship between the two of us. Our initial interactions started off as individuals belonging to two hostile nations aiming to sow the seeds of peace. The day we formally began interacting for the project, Sehr told me that she would like to address me as ‘Apa’ (sister). I readily and happily agreed as I have often been referred to as ‘Didi’, ‘Tai’, ‘Ben’ (in other Indian languages, namely Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati) but never as ‘Apa’. I felt as if this term was coined specially for me and, ever since, I have been Sehr’s ‘Nidhi Apa’.

Sehr, whose name literally means ‘dawn’, has brought to my life a new meaning of friendship and warmth. Through our conversations, we have endlessly discussed the nature of hostile relations between our countries, the prospects for peace, our individual desires, and the different ways in which we can together contribute to building a peaceful narrative amidst hostility, conflict and animosity. Though virtually, we have begun to share our lives with each other – as a result of which, both of us have started realising that friendships are not hostage to borders. Our conversations have faced hiccups due to technological issues, time and study commitments; however, we have made it a point not to miss updating each other about our views on issues concerning both India and Pakistan. This exchange of views has shaped up into a meaningful conversation around issues related to peace and conflict, documented in our peacebuilding blog, nurtured during this period. We make it a point to address issues that are relevant, and those that can spark a debate in order to take this peace project further.

There are times when I have acutely felt the need to transform this virtual friendship into an offline one, and I wish I am able to do so one day. While celebrating festivals at home, watching Pakistani dramas on Zee Zindagi channel, and when I saw the movie ‘Filmistaan’, I wished Sehr and I could have been together, celebrating our friendship, demonstrating to the world how two people together can cross national barriers and be the best of friends. Such is the depth of our bond that anything new I encounter, anything I write, or things as simple as watching a movie, going out for dinner – I rush to send a voice note to Sehr, eager to let her know how important she has become to my life!

In our conversations on India and Pakistan, we have realised that we need not be similar for our friendship to blossom. We only need to hear each other out. It is on this principle that we have based our interactions. I always am keen to listen to what Sehr has to say about Pakistan, its beautiful landscape, her family, her university, and her inclinations for the future. I have loved and admired her marvellous artistic skills, the maturity she reflects at such young age, and the patience she demonstrates while listening to something which may be totally contradictory to her point of view.

At the same time, her keen interest in knowing about India has amazed me, and it is through her that I am actually getting to know my country better. Our chain of exchanges on issues related to education, politics, democracy, religion has made me rethink an array of complex issues. I know I can talk my heart out to Sehr, and she won’t mind even if she disagrees with what I say. She will still hear me out patiently, and address my unending queries about Pakistan.

Friends forever

She has introduced me to the historical and cultural heritage of her country – to a Pakistan I was unaware of earlier. I long to visit Larkana, her home town; at the same time, have her in Baroda where I reside. I would love to watch a Bollywood movie with her, treat her to home-made Gujarati delicacies and, at the same time, not carry the burden of being friends with a supposed ‘enemy’. It is the Building Peace Project that got us together, and it is our shared commitment to peace on which our friendship will chart its future course. As Sehr says, “I love what you love!” This, I believe, is just the beginning of an everlasting friendship, as we continue to unfold a new leaf with each passing day in our exciting peace journey.