Session with LT Gen. Chander Prakash

13th February' 2017

LT. Gen. Chander Prakash:
- Force commander for UN
- He had served for 37 years in the Indian Army
- He has served as UN observer

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Do you think India would've been a better nation under a communist leader?
- In Iran, guards didn't let you do what you want to, you didn't have freedom and that isn't a good feeling.
- Communism has certain advantages but a free country where everyone has equal rights will be better.

Do you think if the means of production will be ceased (state controlled) will it be better for the general population?
- Most of the sector forms aren't performing better than private ones.
- People do hard work and like to enjoy the return of it and they won't be able to do that if it is state controlled.

Do you think that  Israelis are too aggressive towards the Palestinians?
-Personally yes, buT they are protecting themselves from the Palestinians too.

Do you think Israel should have been in this world in the first place?
-They were treated badly by the Germans, they were placed in history and we need to live with them.

Does Gandhi deserve the title "father of the nation"?
- There would've been more bloodshed if his non-violent movement wouldn't have come into action.
- There is no reason why Gandhi shouldn't be called "the father of the nation".

What is your opinion on everyone being humans and not Indians or Pakistanis?
- Problems are not solved by military
- Military is just a tool of politics
- No problems have been resolved by military
- When a person dies, the pain is the same for everyone.

Societies are divided by three things- politics, social and religious, how far do you agree with that?
- Society is divided by ethnic, social terms
- No two human minds are alike, people are divided but the question is how do we live undivided in this divisions?

What is the best working system for this world?
- Democracy is the best because it gives rights to the citizens.

My Point of View

10th Febraury'2017

"The truth is that formal borders do not create difference-they reflect it. Attempts to erase borders are both futile and destructive."

As I was reading an article in The LA Times about immigrants and different cases and in all we see different reasons for the formal border to come into existence.

The formal borders are just a representation of the difference, and the difference is caused by people, hence, the borders are just a representation of humans. We have a tendency to form borders everywhere. In our friends, in our homes, in our religion, and somewhere in us as well. We tend keep something or the other separated. It starts small and as power grows, everything gets bigger. Instead of singling a person out, we keep a whole community away through walls and fences, but we are the ones who have built them.

Today, people fight to bring these borders and walls up or down but some people forget too look at the invisible ones right in front of them. But the transparent ones were built too. They were built because of differences that were again created by us and no matter how much we try, these walls have become stainless. Therefore, attempts to erase borders are futile and destructive because they are there for a reason and the ones that have no point are scrapped down but the walls that represent mankind stay there and that is what history also tells us.

People might believe in the philosophy of a borderless world but today after so many years of war and history, it is just a fantasy. 

Oral Testimonies

9th February'2017

Partition effected so many people in many ways that were violent and heartless. As Mr. Ravi Chopra says, everyone lived together, played together, ate together and the same people were burning houses, looting and pushing the same people out of "their" territory. Some people refused to leave the homes their generations had been staying in but people didn't see this coming.

It were the political power and different ideologies that cut through peoples normal lifestyle. We find similarity between all religious communities because at a time we all got along. e share similarities in various things like humour, culture, conflict, language as shared by Vazira Zaminder. But after the politics cut through and made the physical borders, internal borders formed between the two communities. They look at each other as enemies and in some way, they have right to do so because people like Shane Ali have seen their family die in front of them. How can people forget those incidents and just break the internal border. However, as generations are passing, people are trying t break these borders and look at it in a more humane way and see everyone as 1 community and try to break the partition.

The partition was a result of politics. Everyone had a part, even the Brits as told by Vazira Zaminder. They created the conflict between two religions. Also Nehru and Jinnah shared different ideologies. But these people weren't also aware of what this partition meant and what could happen when two large communities were to split.

From my own point of view, a lot has changed. I heard people tell that EVERYONE got along but I've hardly seen hindus or Sikhs getting along with Muslims. All I have seen is TWO countries that see each other as enemies and like to defeat each other in sports and in war. They see each other differently and have made the differences stand out, in culture, in religion, in everything. I, being an india, have only heard people and my own family talk about Pakistan as a country that brought pain and I am sure that is what is happening in Pakistan too. A lot of generations have been brought up since then and everyone id being brought up differently  with their own mindset but as time is passing, for people it might just be an event in history.

10 million people were left unrooted and about a million died. It has been 70 years and people have moved on. But a lot of people went through it saw scenes that were inhumane, violent and deadly. People have been hurt and the scar still remains and for some people it is difficult  to get along with the separated side. People have their families split up, their life time's work just left there but time is passed and people are still healing.

We listened to Mr. Shane Ali. His mother and brother died in front of him and he was sent to some other family for six months. In his voice we could hear the uncertainty he ad. We saw how he faced difficulty to trust people. What we also could hear in his voice is the maturity and modesty they gained because they experienced something at the extreme level. They struggled for their life and tey have have learnt a lot about life and the pain it has.

Berlin Wall

8th February'2017

Session with Ms. Smita.

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BERLIN WALL
- Built in 1961
-Broken down in 1989 by civilians spontaneously

ISRAELI- WEST BANK BARRIER
- Built in 2002 to control the hostility in both countries

GREAT WALL OF CHINA
- Built to prevent Mongolians to enter.

BERLIN

- At first it looked like a good idea but then people started to realise the uselessness of the wall.

- The head of the government was Hanukah in Germany.

- An atmosphere was beginning to create within people that it might be okay to teardown the wall.

- The USSR, US, Britain, France divided Germany after they lost in WW2 because Germany had to be reconstructed. It was not meant to be a permanent occupation.

- Berlin was on the soviet zone. 

- Problem occurred between the occupying countries related to currency etc.

- The idea was to keep people from East Berlin and Germany to come into West Berlin because then the governments will change.

- 100 recorded deaths attempting to cross the border.

- Some people walled in and some people walled out.

- The center area was called the death strip 

- In 1975 they were calling it the boundary wall.

- The cold war had contributed into the tension created between East and West.

- Political, social, economic, and cultural differences are why the wall was built. Brain Drain.

- Life was tough in East Berlin and all the doctors, architect, engineers etc. decided to move away. 

- Communism (East Berlin), is essentially a good ideology but it wasn't working out for East Berlin. 

When East Germany people came into West, they used it as propaganda and shamed communism. 

- Through arguably rational, the decision was highly doubtable.

- It wasn't morally correct and it was unacceptable as people weren't consulted.

- For some time, people were allowed to cross for work and job reasons. 

-People were closely watch when they came to the other side by Stasi.

-They developed trust issues and eventually stopped contacting people on the other side, 

- Structures imposed to divide mankind often against the will and better judgement masses. 

- Protest movements on East Berlin: Exit on Voice

-People's protest: student protest, tole of the church

- On western side protest- graffiti art.

- After the wall broke down, the soviet union collapsed in 1991 and the other big 3 started to break away. 

-Big cultural icons like Pink Floyd started commenting on the wall

- The global influence: The polish people protested against the soviet and they gave people in Germany confidence. 

- The young generation had an uncertain feeling when the wall broke down because they were brought up with the wall.

-On the other hand, people were partying and welcoming their nieghbours.

-Just because we break the walls, doesnt mean that trust will come automatically. 

- Dont just demonise the wall alone but what caused it. 

How did it all begin?

5th February' 2017

When did it all start?

I believe it started when mankind discovered each other and themselves. They discovered gender, colour, and so started separating each set of people from the other. Before everything being found, it was at a small level. Smaller population, hence, smaller group of people to separate and prioritise.

It started growing bigger at the "age of exploration". Groups of people started to explore another group of people. They went exploring for selfish reasons and so thought that the other person, or the supplier was below them, here comes the partition again. As they though of themselves upper than the explored people, countries started to conquer places, further dividing them to do something against their will. As it started to grow rapidly, people started looking at each other as different. Nobody "made" this happen but it happened gradually without getting noticed.

Age of exploration helped divide communities but what further divided people into classes, the place when subject of money came in, was during the industrialisation. This revolution played a big hand in the formation of borders. The industrialised countries became stronger  because they had everything other countries were lacking. And then, gradually, they became imperial and colonised other states that hadn't gone through the revolution.

This separated people into the working class and ruling class. Then everything other stated since humans could remember, started becoming clearer. Differences became clearer. Slowly, people couldn't tolerate the differences. They saw competition or disgust in everything different. This led to separation. Formally. Borders and walls are built. People have migrated. And fought war against each other for different set of minds.

It is still the same. It is just that everything got bigger. 

Exercise

Exercise: How do you define your identity?

 Discuss the above question and the options below with your parents or any other Adults and answer the questions given below :-

DEEPAK GABA (Father)

What roles do the following play in how you and your students define your identities? Rank them in order of importance to how you define your identity. (1=most important)

1. Ability

2. Education

3. Career

4. Family

5. Sexual Orientation

6. Ethnicity

7. Nationality

8. Political Affiliation

9. Faith

10.  Race

11. Socio-economic status

12. Age

14. Other (write in)_________

What would you do if your government did not protect the part of your identity that is most 
important to you? 

"I will think clearly, the steps needed to be taken, what is in my power. If I can fight with the government, I will do that, by adopting the right means. And if the government if tyrant, then I will leave the country because I cannot fight with the government. If I can, in some way, if I have the courage, the heart, the thought and resources, I will fight and take the government out.


How would you feel if other governments continued to support your government, even if it was 
not protecting this part of your identity?

" I will start to doubt myself whether what I am doing is right or wrong. Because if other governments will start supporting my government and everybody is against me then maybe I am wrong. So I will have to rethink. And then if it is an access, then I will again start to see whether I can fight in the difficult situation, that's a challenge, I can't give you correct answer for this hypothetical question"

Session with Ms Samina

25th January'2017

We had a discussion with Ms Samina. She has written a book about a girl and her family who went through partition and some side stories. We asked her questions not only about the book but her thoughts on various aspects like borderless world, government, etc. This session truly helped me open up to new point of views on borders and why political border have formed and different borders as well.

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- any decisions by the government should not affect her life and she should have the right as a citizen she should make her own decisions
- Hina is now 27 and has 2 kids and Ms Samina often keeps in touch with her
- She chose Hina out of other schools because  she had something different about her
- Hina's grandmother said that the there were red lakes because of blood everywhere
- People were going in and out of Pakistan and India and were still replacing a while after the partition. Some people were recruited or transferred to some other family in the same country.
- The border wasn't strong at first so people managed to get over there. It was just an environmental border at the time not a political one.
- she started this project to make a short movie
- she was curious of this subject and thought Purani Dilli was the best place to go explore because it is somewhat infamous
- when places merge, thats when the conflict happens
- political border is one kind of border, there are border within people

Partition 1947

19 January' 2017

Today we learnt about "how industrialisation of European countries affected the relationship with their colonies throughout the new world". During discussing this we came across some terms ike absolute monarchies, mercantilism etc. And we also learnt about the state of contries during the industrialisation of European countries. Everyone also gave sense of industrialisation of European countries. Everyone also gave sense of Industrialisation as a definition for a recap. Below are the rough notes that I made during class.

-------------------------NOTES-------------------------
How did Industrialisation of countries affect there relationship with the new world?

The trading market will benefit because the country buying the goods has reached mercantilism imperialism.

Mercantilism- belief in the benefits of profitable trading.

The country which is ruling is imperial and the country being ruled is the colony. This type of rule is called colonial rule.

Colonised Continents- Africa, Asia, Latin America

Imperialist Countries- United States, European countries- Spain, Portugal, Britain, Netherlands, France

Absolute Monarchies- Strong kingship

Partition 1947

18th January'2017

British came in and they started establishing trade under the name of The East India company. This began the exploitation. 

A British person would sit in the court of the ruler and would advise him how to run the court and in return Indians will give the money to the British. 

Also if there was an attack by any other Indian to country to this Indian country the British will help India. 

The British bought trading rights. They were buying these from Indian rulers. 

With these treaties Indian ruler, in many cases, also gave grants where in they started collecting taxes from the local population. They started getting in the daily routine of the locals. 

Video Notes

16th January'2017

VIDEO- Finding your Roots

Sanjay Gupta-
-a neurosurgeon

-Unusual being Indian
-not fun
-being treated differently

Margaret Cho-
- a comedian
- an immigrant
- is curious to know more about her authenticity

Martha Stewart-
-her father wasn't treated equally
-her father felt isolated
-she used to get mad about this unfair behaviour
-never wants to forget being an immgrant


Immigrants- 2nd class citizens

In this video, 3 immigrants from different corners of the world shared their stories living in America. Most of these people felt uncomfortable. People around them weren't accepting. Martha Stewart's story was about her FATHER feeling isolated and being treated unfairly and she wanting to connect to her roots but Sanjay Gupta's story was about HIM being from India and discriminated. A whole generation gap.  I see here how American's have accepted immigrants looking alike but Indians are still facing different types of discrimination.

VIDEO- I am not black, You are not white

- Labels/ we accept them without doubting them
- Forced to own their bodies
- Race was in the 15th century to divide people
- Judgemental, artificial labels
- Divisions starts conflict, conflict starts war.

This video talked about not only racism of colour, but discrimination of body. It was all about what is inside and bodies are only their to drive around. It talked about being forced to own our bodies and being judged for how our BODY looks.

Partition 1947

16th Jan' 2017

In our class we have just started with our new topic- Partition. In the first class we were given an isight into what we are going to do the next 2 months. We started off with playing tug of war. So we were divided into 2 teams- girls and boys and weren't told why we were playing it or what we were supposed to do. People used their previous experiences and understanding to play the game. The strength of the boys was more and they won by pulling the girls across the red ribbon. After the game we were asked a few terms that were in our mind and were given 3 questions to answer-what was the game, what we thought, and what we were wondering. Through these questions we realised that we did come across conflicts but we didn't dare to question them, mainly because we were scared of our teacher. And the red ribbon that we had to cross, no one thought of picking it up. We related our classroom situation to the partition. So the teacher in our situation will become the ruler or the governor and students that obey the teacher will become people who obey their ruler or government. And the red ribbon in our situation will become the border in the real world.

Through this activity, we opened our minds to the whole idea of partition. Why it happens and why people let it happen. Though a small game of tug of war, we got a good start for this unit with open minds.