Publications available from The Gandhi Foundation

Posted on February 21, 2013 by gandhifriends

Books:

‘The Happiness Manual’ Gandhian Ways of Living
by Prof. Narinder Kapur, £5 + £1 p+p

click on the link for further information about this publication:
http://gandhifoundation.org/2012/08/15/new-happiness-manual-by-professor-narinder-kapur/

Simply Gandhi by Mark Hoda, 17pp £1.50

Muriel Lester, Gandhi and Kingsley Hall by David Maxwell, 16pp £3.50

Frontier Gandhi: Abdul Ghaffar Khan by Shireen Shah, 28pp £3

The Life of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, 49pp £2

The Conquest of Violence by Bart de Ligt, £5

All Men Are Brothers by M K Gandhi, 251pp £4

The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi ed. by Prabhu & Rao, 589 pp HB £7

Quotes of Gandhi ed. by S Bhalla, 224pp HB £7

My Religion by M K Gandhi, 166pp £3

Truth is God by M K Gandhi, 159pp £3

My Nonviolence by M K Gandhi, 373pp £5

Gandhi in Anecdotes by Ravindra Varma, 188pp HB £5

Mahatma Gandhi: A Biography by B R Nanda, 542pp £12

Gandhi the Man by Eknath Easwaran (illustrated), 184pp £10

Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power by Gene Sharp, 316pp £5

Sonja Schlesin: Gandhi’s South African Secretary by G Paxton, 101pp £7.50

Meditations on Gandhi: A Ravindra Varma Festschrift, 227pp HB £15

The United Nations and its Future edited by Vijay Mehta, 274pp £10

Gandhi’s Outstanding Leadership by P A Nazareth £12

Gandhi and the Contemporary World (Collection of essays), 421pp PB £5, HB £7 – special offer

Please add 25% for postage within UK.

For postage overseas, please contact George Paxton at the e-mail address below.

If you would like to order any of the above, please contact:

George Paxton at (books@gandhifoundation.org)

87 Barrington Drive, Glasgow G4 9ES, Scotland

Cheques should be made payable to The Gandhi Foundation or payment can be made through paypal via the Donate button.

Filed under: 1. News & Events, South Asia, UK & Europe | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award 2011

Posted on July 30, 2012 by gandhifriends

“India in Chronic Famine, Funded From London”

By John Rowley

Presentation of The Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award for 2011 jointly to Dr Binayak Sen (left) and Bulu Imam (right) and presented by Lord Bhikhu Parekh (centre).

 

The Gandhi International Peace Award was established by Lord Richard Attenborough, Surur Hoda, Diana Schumacher and Martin Polden in 1998 “to honour unsung heroes and heroines for their advocacy and practise of Non-Violence”. The Gandhi Foundation’s Vice-President, Lord Bhikhu Parekh presented the much delayed 2011 Award jointly to Dr Binayak Sen and Bulu Imam, the cultural activist, ‘for their humanitarian work’ amongst the tribal peoples of India, the Adivasis, on 12th June in The House of Lords.

Dr Binayak Sen is a highly respected expert on children’s health and has become a very effective human rights campaigner. He was made an Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience in 2007 and is still on bail despite being released twice by the Indian Supreme Court. He is currently under charge for Sedition. One reason for his oppression by the Chhattisgarh State is his criticism of their health care system. In his speech, he argued from his Government’s own statistics that India has been, and remains, in a state of chronic famine and that the hardest hit are, yet again, the impoverished and the dispossessed. He showed how the Indian Government has enacted increasingly draconian laws designed to eliminate dissent and implemented them through the Courts, the police and the Army. He said that all of this is being done in collusion with multi-national corporations under the banner of neo-liberal capitalism and so they are jointly responsible for both the famine and the widespread abuses of human rights.  Dr Felix Padel told us that global mining strategy and much of the funding for its implementation is decided in the City of London and that, therefore, the Coalition must demand the same transparency in the mining and construction industries as they are now demanding of the banks.  Bulu Imam, joint Recipient of the Award, said that only a ‘New Consciousness’ would allow humankind to survive. This meant greater understanding and insight into what is really happening around us, learning from peoples like the Adivasis, who are directly in touch with the elements of life, and for us to behave less selfishly and more for the benefit of others.

                                                                    —————

Dr Sen’s speech was entitled “Hunger, Dispossession and the Legitimacy of Dissent”. He produced figures from The National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau whose latest survey show that between 45% to 47% of children under 5,  37% of the whole adult population and an astonishing 60% of Minorities and Scheduled Castes are malnourished by weight-for-age criteria, that is, Body Mass Index. The World Health Organisation declares a famine when more than 40% of a nation’s peoples have a BMI less than 18.5.

The Adivasis, with whom he has worked for 30 years, have been able to survive the famine only because their traditions dictate that all have equal access to their common property – land, water, shelter and crops. Since Rajiv Gandhi opened India to foreign investment, the State has increasingly “acted as the Guarantor to the expropriation of common property resources, handing them over to corporate interests under the doctrine of Eminent Domain, through which the State is the ultimate owner of all the resources in the country”.  And so, for decades, the vast resources of minerals, from bauxite to coal, under Adivasi land – never paid for at anything like the true ‘capitalist market rate’ – has been mined at an increasing rate, their valleys dammed for power, factories built and top flight transport systems to serve them. PM Manmohan Singh is celebrated as a key figure in India’s spectacular economic development but he and his Government brook no opposition.  He called the Naxalite insurgency in the so-called Red Corridor [from Jharkand to Andra Pradesh] ‘the greatest threat to India’s security’ and in 2009 launched Operation Greenhunt deploying a huge array of the armed service to target the so-called Naxalites – actually The Communist Party of India [Maoist]. As usual, this is having its most devastating impact on the people caught in between – the Adivasis.

As more and more mines, factories, dams and roads are built on their land, 70 million Adivasis and many other Minorities have been purposively starved, dispossessed, impoverished, physically violated with impunity, falsely imprisoned and barred from fair judicial process or suffered all six.  Dr Sen pointed out that, quite obviously, resistance had to be organised if they were to survive these onslaughts. “But they and others right across India are now faced with a panoply of laws, old and new, that severely restrict free speech and any form of protest. However peaceful and non-violent these protests are, they are branded as ‘sedition’, ‘rebelliousness’ or  ‘insurgency’. Too often protests are met with violence by police, army and corporate goondas. There are thousands of people in jail right now, just like me, who have been convicted under false charges. I am one of the very few lucky ones. I have been granted bail twice by The Supreme Court who stated ‘that no evidence had been produced by the Chhattisgarh Government’, but I still await a final judgement.”

How can peace be achieved when both sides resort to violence? Dr Felix Padel suggested that India needs its own model of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The UK Coalition and The City would have to appear. The Foreign Office and the Departments for Business and International Development all share a current duty of care to show us the effects of their actions with our money and also to demand that all corporate communications and financial transactions in the UK are made transparent. For here in The City, Dr Padel pointed out, is: “The global centre for coordinating corporate investment in mining and now hosts the vast majority of the corporate headquarters, their Banks and their financiers.  It is imperative that we can all see the link between  decisions made here and the actual impact they have on real people and environments.  There should be an Independent Commission into the Mining Industry, stronger even than the Vickers Commission on Banking, as equivalent scandals wait to be revealed there too”.

Dr Padel said that there is colossal ignorance here in the UK about what many call India’s Civil or Hidden War.  Too often this can be labelled ‘wilful ignorance’, that is, not knowing what you should know.  One professor in statistics at the prestigious Indian Institute of Statistics in Kolkata estimated that the professionals involved in designing, building and managing an Aluminium factory or dam were aware of only 2% of the effects their projects have on local communities and ecosystems.  But there is what could be called ‘purposeful ignorance’ – hiding facts intentionally, not telling the Whole Truth, lying by omission. There has also been a noticeable lack of press coverage in the UK of the War and its causes.  This has ensured that few people have any understanding of the violence and corruption which we, as a people, are indirectly causing – ‘innocent ignorance’? “Many, including Arundhati Roy, have unpicked and exposed the links between the elites of corporate elites, politicians, armed services, bankers, big philanthropists and media owners and are not surprised at our collective ignorance. She and many others contradicting the image of India as a model of democracy and economic success have been vilified, spied upon, attacked and falsely accused. ”

Joint Recipient Bulu Imam called for “A New Consciousness”. We need Satyagrahas for the 21st Century, in other words, Citizens who take responsibility for understanding their society, act solely for the welfare of others and who are prepared to offer their lives in the pursuit of justice. He said that “industrial civilization is an aberrant civilization. It has strayed from the path of Nature. It has made war, brutality and profit a path without compassion or hope. It heralds planetary catastrophe from causing global warming. India with its older order of ancient spiritual values, non-violence toward man and nature, tolerance and psychological fulfillment still stands ready, even now, to show the way. The culture of the Adivasis, developed centuries before we arrived, offers us that very model. From them we can all learn, we can each learn how to become non-violent within, towards each other and to the planet.  All of us here must act now to stop all these self-centred forces destroying these fragile and exemplary communities and their priceless eco-systems. Once you see the links between your life and theirs, you will understand that their struggle is our struggle and you will foresee that only profound mutual aid between all the planet’s communities can save some of us from the apocalypse rushing towards us.”

An hour’s lively debate ensued. From the 90 distinguished guests packed into Committee Room 4a, the Panel could respond to only a few of the comments and questions clamouring to be heard. Those chosen were Martin Horwood MP [LibDem & Chair, The All Party Parliamentary Group on Tribal Peoples], Bianca Jagger, Aruna Roy, Professors John Gilbert and Narinder Kapur, C B Patel, Colin Bex, Antony Copley, Martin Polden and Jennifer Wallace. Whilst all admired our two Recipients, there was little consensus on the way forward. The Gandhi Foundation would like to facilitate discussion and so will shortly publish here on our website, an edited transcription of the key points raised.

The question now facing The Gandhi Foundation is “What are we going to do about this?”

If you are still unconvinced that Non-violent Direct Action against the violence being perpetrated by the Indian Government is required urgently, read Cathy Scott-Clark’s article about Kashmir. She heads it with a quote “We Need Protection” [www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/09/mass-graves-of-kashmir]. She reveals the atrocities – extra-judicial murder, torture and other illegal human rights abuses – that the Indian Army has committed in Kashmir. We now know that they behave no differently under “Operation Greenhunt”.

If you would like to see one example of how The Gandhi Foundation can be effective, albeit indirectly and in a very small way, then read Decca Aitkenhead’s article on Clive Stafford Smith which she also heads with a quote: “The jury system in this country is utter insanity” [www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jul/08/clive-stafford-smith-jury-system-insanity].  You will notice that Clive has included “The Gandhi International Peace Award 2005” as the only other point worth mentioning in his CV.

Finally, why don’t you compare the laws against Terrorism and other forms of Dissent in India with our own?

John Rowley is a Trustee of The Gandhi Foundation and Project Manager for The Gandhi International Peace Award 2011.

To view Bulu Imam’s speech: The Need For A New Consciousness by Bulu Imam

To view Dr Binayak Sen’s speech: Click Here

To view the photographs from the event click on the photo gallery in the right hand column of the homepage

Filed under: 1. News & Events, 2. Peace Award, South Asia, UK & Europe | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Indian Relations

Posted on October 19, 2011 by gandhifriends

India - Question for Short Debate

Asked By Lord Parekh

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of economic, political and cultural relations between the United Kingdom and India.

Lord Parekh: It is a great privilege to initiate this debate. Since it is a common practice to declare an interest, I begin by saying that I have close ties with India, I actively participate in the public life of India, I have been a recipient of two of its highest honours and I am a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s global advisory committee.

For us in the UK, relations with India are of the utmost importance. Britain shaped the cultural and political physiognomy of modern India. Indians are a significant presence in the UK: in your Lordships’ House alone, they number about 15. India is also an emerging economic power, destined to play an important global role in the decades to come. It is therefore important that we should periodically take a careful look at relations between the two countries and ask how they can be strengthened yet further.
At the political level, there is considerable co-operation and mutual respect between the two countries. The UK is greatly admired for its good sense and maturity. However, there are important areas of disagreement. Given India’s colonial past and view of the world, it does not share our enthusiasm for high-minded so-called liberal intervention in the affairs of other countries. It is also critical of our fluctuating policy in Afghanistan. India has also felt, both in public and parliamentary debate, that we misused the United Nations resolution in Libya to justify action that the resolution did not justify, and undertook actions such as equipping the rebel army that the resolution did not permit. This is why India voted, and continues to vote, in a different way from us in the United Nations, though it has not been openly critical of us. We should appreciate this difference of view and not allow it to stand in the way of good relations. This is what most successive British Governments have often done.
India’s ambition to secure a permanent seat on the Security Council is legitimate. It has more than 1 billion people and represents a distinct voice in the global conversation. Its claim is no less weighty than China’s, and perhaps weightier than our own or that of France. It is only a matter of time before India’s claim is met, since about 120 members of the General Assembly have indicated their consent. We can expedite this and earn ourselves good will by, for example, moving a resolution in the General Assembly, on our own or with France, as we did in the case of Libya and as we have done in other cases.
For years, India has been a victim of cross-border terrorism and has repeatedly complained about it —but we did not take it seriously until it began to affect us at home. Even now, we have not shown sufficient sensitivity to India’s deepest concerns. I am not suggesting, even for a moment, that India’s policy on, say, Kashmir is right. Like many in your Lordships’ House, and many in India itself, I have been greatly critical of it, and I wish that it had been different. However, that cannot justify the horrendous acts of terrorism that we have seen in Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of India. We in Britain could give India greater active support and enable it to sustain its open and democratic society.
At the economic level, our ties with India are strong but could be stronger. India is the second largest investor in the UK after the United States. More than 500 Indian companies are based in the UK, and their businesses generate more than £14 billion. Our visa regime stands in the way of intracompany transfers, and some Indian companies have begun to move to Belgium. That cannot be in our interest. We are the fourth largest investor in India, but our investment is about 5 per cent of its total foreign direct investment. That is a very small amount for a country of our size and stature.
India is expanding its infrastructure in a very big way, involving nearly 1 trillion rupees. We ought to be involved in a much more active way than we are. India does not need to raise money in the UK market: it has enough indigenous resources. What it needs is equipment, expertise, consultants, efficient organisation and experience. That is what we are ideally equipped to provide. I am sorry to see that we have not been involved as actively and comprehensively as we should have been in India’s programme for the development of its infrastructure, such as roads, airports and energy plants.Of course, India needs to do more itself. It needs to improve its bureaucracy and carry through its programme of reform to make itself a more attractive destination for foreign investment. However, that has not stopped other countries such as Malaysia, France and the United States from stepping up their investment. There is no reason why we should not do the same. Sometimes I have a feeling that we—or at least our companies—tend to be averse to risk and seek a guaranteed return before we consider investing. That attitude needs to change. It is only when we seek active engagement with India that we will have a moral right to put pressure on it to reform its policies.
I now turn briefly to an area that matters a great deal to me and to India: the field of higher education. India is expanding its higher education at an unprecedented rate. Nearly 700 to 800 new universities are expected, along with new Indian institutes of technology and central universities. There is enormous scope for Britain. The UK India Education and Research Initiative has made a significant contribution but we need to do much more. I welcome the announcement of UKIERI stage 2, but it will need significantly enhanced financial support from public and private sources. It also needs to be given a new direction and greater depth. For example, British universities should be encouraged to set up campuses in India. I assume that the Indian Government’s attitude will be a little clearer than it is at present. There is no reason why our great universities cannot adapt academic departments in Indian universities and build up their teaching and research capacities.
India badly needs highly qualified faculty staff, and here too Britain can do much. For several years I have been urging a scheme. We have a large number of professors who either have come to the end of their career and retired or wish to take early retirement. There is no reason why they cannot be persuaded or incentivised to spend a lot of time in India. They have their occupational pension guaranteed here, and the Indian Government could be asked to top it up and make it attractive for them to spend either a few years in India, or part of every year teaching and guiding research in Indian universities. A rough calculation suggests that there are at least 3,500 university professors in the natural and social sciences who, I am told, would find it attractive to go and teach and do research in Indian universities. We ought to tap into that resource.University education is not the only area of co-operation. Much can and should be done at the level of secondary education. There could be sizeable exchanges of teachers. That would benefit both teachers and students in the two countries, and would build strong and lasting intellectual and cultural bonds. If I may digress for a moment: I have a family foundation, and it has been arranging exchanges of teachers between a top school here and a top school in India. During the three years that the scheme has been going, I have been struck by the enormous enthusiasm that the English teachers have aroused in Indian schools. A teacher of English from a top school here teaching Shakespeare in an Indian school has been a remarkable experience for Indian students, and I know from my close contact with that school that many students are immensely excited and have turned to literature as their special field of interest. If one school can do that, imagine hundreds of schools being able to do that.
Finally, I think the Government have made a great mistake in restricting post-study work visas. Under the current scheme, students coming here can work for two years after graduating. This allows them to recoup part of their expenses and to contribute their skills to this country. It benefits both sides. The restrictions that the Government are proposing are very rigid. Last year, 39,000 students were guaranteed a visa to work for up to two years. The Government want to reduce that by half, which is extraordinary. Germany has decided that students who have graduated will be allowed to stay up to a year to look for an appropriate job if they have sufficient maintenance funds. New Zealand and Canada have done the same. I am really sorry that we seem to be creating a situation in which we are discouraging Indian students from coming here.
Lord Bhikhu Parekh is Vice-President of the Gandhi Foundation and a Professor at the Centre for the Study of Democracy in the University of Westminster.

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The Gandhi Foundation Annual Gathering 2011

Posted on July 11, 2011 by gandhifriends

The AGM Annual Gathering Event
- Gandhi in Noakhali

21st May 2011 at Kingsley Hall, Powis Road, London

Shaheen Westcombe MBE

Film screening: rare footage of Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to Noakhali during the 1946 riots

Testimonials from Gandhi’s visit; Shaheen Westcombe MBE talks about her father’s archive

Poetry reading and speeches

Tour of Gandhi’s room at Kingsley Hall

Mid-season exhibition: resident artist Saif Osmani examines the spaces inhabited by Gandhi

The Spaces Inhabited by Gandhi

by Saif Osmani, Visual Artist and Spatial Designer

Kingsley Hall is the place Mahatma Gandhi chose to stay in during his visit to London in 1931 for the second Round Table conference.

I began researching the footprint of the Kingsley Hall building from the local archives at Bancrost Library. In media coverage of Gandhi’s visit of 1931, the newspapers attempted to present a romanticised and disaffected view of the East End. Photographs were taken over a broad skyline, away from the factories which lined the major roads and arteries of the locality.

The style of painting I have chosen borrows from far eastern practices, from Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese rural paintings on cloth. I initially started with broad, loose brush strokes, layering the details and features of the buildings in an attempt to re-create a sense of time and place, whilst playing with perspective. Each piece was further abstracted by imbuing meanings extracted from testimonies in Noakhali and London, such as in the piece ‘Top of Gandhi’s head’ and ‘Beyond Landscapes’. Through abstraction I am exploring Gandhi’s influence over physical occurrences as well as tracking his thought process and philosophy.

The Spaces Inhabited by Gandhi by Saif Osmani

The iconography and aesthetic of Gandhi’s public image was difficult to steer away from. I find that traditional canvas often prompts the viewer to search for a reality, as if looking through a portal into an imaginary world. By painting on cloth I am attempting to break away from this and allow the viewer to search for his or her own meaning.

The focus on the spaces Gandhi occupied come from my own practice which often follows narratives in space, by recording the displacement of people and changes in spatial configurations, as a means of understanding socio-political aspects of human behaviour.

These paintings will form part of a larger exhibition, intended to be shown as part of September’s Open House weekend.

To view images from the AGM and Saif Osmani’s exhibition click here

Filed under: 1. News & Events, UK & Europe | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Battle of Plassey Day – 23rd June

Posted on June 16, 2011 by gandhifriends

How should we remember the Battle of Plassey Day on 23rd June every year ?

Since 2007 Brick Lane Circle has been organising annual events – conferences, East India Company Walks and poetry readings – to explore important issues relating to the English East India Company’s rule over Bengal.  The first conference was held in on 24th June 2007, which was designed to help remember and understand the nature and impacts of the Battle of Plassey that took place 250 years ago.

In 2008 we received Heritage Lottery Fund to engage a group of young people, aged 18-25, to undertake research and write a book on the East India Company’s heritage of London.  This culminated in the publication of a book in May 2011 called ‘Plassey’s Legacy: young Londoners explore the hidden legacy of the East India Company’. Details of the project are available on the East India Company website.

How should we remember 23rd June 1757?  This day in June this year will be 254 years after the Battle of Plassey when the English East India Company conquered Bengal, under the leadership of Robert Clive.  The battle itself was quite an insignificant event, lasting only a day and fought on an unimportant field, about 100 miles north of Kolkata (Calcutta).  However, it was a highly momentous event, being the springboard for and the beginning of the British Indian Empire.

Bengal and Britain have nearly four hundred years of direct links.  The early phase, mid-1600s to 1757, was mutually beneficial, consisting mostly of trade, where Bengal supplied a number of goods, including the fabric ‘Muslin’, the famous textile of Bengal, for markets in the UK and beyond.  The period 1757-1947 was the colonial phase when the British were the boss and did virtually whatever they liked.  Many books have been written by all manners of people on the nature of British rule.  A general consensus is that it consisted of both negative and positive elements.  On the other hand, both societies in Britain and in India were dynamic and complex and that within those heterogeneous complexities, on all sides, some people profited while others suffered to different degrees.

When the British took over Bengal in 1757 it was known to be a rich province.  In the words of the its conqueror, Robert Clive:

 … The country of Bengal is called, by way of distinction, the paradise of the earth. It not only abounds with the necessaries of life to such a degree, as to furnish a great part of India with its superfluity, but it abounds in very curious and valuable manufactures, sufficient not only for its own use, but for the use of the whole globe. The silver of the west and the gold of the east have for many years been pouring into that country, and goods only have been sent out in return. This has added to the luxury and extravagance of Bengal.

(Horn, D.B. and Ransome, M., (editors), English Historical Documents, 1714-1783 (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1957), pp. 809-811).

However, when the British left India in 1947, Bengal was one of the poorest places in the world. How does one explain that change in fortune?

Post 1947 has been a new era for both Britain and the Indian subcontinent.  Three independent countries are now marching forward with differing degrees of success and Britain is becoming an ever more diverse and multicultural place with large-scale migration of people from around the world, including the Indian subcontinent.

The first people of India conquered by Britain, the Bengalis, live in their largest UK concentration in East London, which was the heart of the East India Company from where it planned and carried out most of its activities relating to the rule of India.  Bengalis in the UK, most of which are from Sylhet region of modern day Bangladesh, are also making their own unique contributions to the ever increasing multicultural, diverse, creative, dynamic, prosperous and enjoyable UK.  In this context, how should we remember the Battle of Plassey Day on 23rd June every year?

Muhammad Ahmedullah – Secretary, Brick Lane Circle

Brick Lane Circle

Filed under: 1. News & Events, Politics & Democracy, UK & Europe | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Kettling – A Masque for Our Times – by John Rowley

Posted on April 5, 2009 by gandhifriends

Director: Sir Paul Stephenson
Script: Sir Ian Blair
Producers: The Metropolitan Police
Troupe: “The Darth Vader Clones”
Extras: Thousands of Unwitting Citizenry

The Revolutionary Committee re-named 1st April this year as “Financial Fools Day”. By chance, your own newly-appointed Theatre Critic chose to review the Premiere of “The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse”, a play billed as the highlight of the day’s Carnival and Serious Intent. Humour and satire would mock The Capital Village Idiots for their greed, arrogance and selfpreening stupidity. At 2 o’clock, the four huge masks of Pestilence, War, Famine and Death, each attended by dancers, singers, jugglers and clowns, would converge from the four Quarters of the Land in Capital Village square.
My daughter had a University project to complete on “Street Theatre as Protest” so made sure we got there early. We knew exactly where to go because the Committee had agreed assembly points with The Police. Thousands were expected for the free show despite the Powers stressing, perhaps a tad salaciously, the prospect of a ‘bit of violence’.
What we didn’t know, as we hopped on the bus, was that we were about to experience an attempt at a most astonishing cultural ‘coup d’état’. Nor did we expect to play two bit parts on TV, screened to prove, many hoped, the futility of amateurish nonviolence in the face of well-orchestrated State violence. My daughter and I gave them the footage they wanted and, as a result, I was on the evening TV News for 4 seconds and in The Guardian for half an inch the next day.
When the G20 Meeting was fixed for London, the forlorn Sir Ian Blair must have seen a wonderful opportunity to boost morale in The Met and catch the attention of politicians. If his lads excelled themselves, especially in his ‘piece de resistance’, he could grab prime-time News around the globe. Simply obey the media maxim, “If it bleeds, it leads” and ensure he could utter the refrain, “They hit us first, Your Honour”.
Kettling offered the perfect solution: an ultra-modern crowd control technique demanding just a bit of discipline. Imagine the stills in “The Daily Wind-Up”: perfectly aligned Clones, slick weaponry, unruly Mob subdued. TV sequences showing our calm and inexorable advance, the first blow by a corralled protester, the efficient, effective response. Bingo! A display of controlled violence commanding the respect and admiration of all. Consultancy contracts would flow again.
Police culture frames protesters as “The Enemy”. TV sight-bites demand a clash, “Us vs Them”, and simple codes – weaponry, discipline and colour – to identify the goodies: Us. Black is best because, like the night, it threatens violence and heightens weakness. Police Forces love it – always forgetting that it also signals Evil, the dark side, The Shadow. When did they ever wear blue?
So what do we see at the G20 protest ? Black helmets with dark facehiding visor, black stab-proof jackets, luminescent yellow waistcoats, black trousers and boots; each equipped with the latest hand-held pain-inflicting weaponry and electronics, again all coloured black. Rehearsals held at Heathrow, Kingsnorth, etc.
Can I guess the Summary of the Police’s internal project memo?

US:
Aim: To re-assert our world-wide reputation for efficient and effective policing.
Target Audience: Leaders, Ministers of Homeland Security, Chiefs of Police, Generals.
Methods: Demonstrate mastery of latest crowd control techniques, especially “Kettling”, and surveillance products. Priorities: Protect 1. The G20 Leaders. 2. Property. 3. Us. 4. Them.

THEM:
Types: Research indicates all ages, classes, sectors and interest groups. Probably liberals.
Reasons for Assembly: The Financial Crisis.
Targets: The Financial Elite – Banks, Politicians and other collaborators including Us.
Qualities: Anger, frustration, resentment ie violent. Amateurs.
Purpose: Carnival a cover for violence.

THE IDEAL VENUE: An enclosable arena with vantage points for VIPs, gear and Control room. Consider Bartholomew Lane where the all-glass Royal Bank of Scotland sits right opposite the all-stone Bank of England. At one end, Threadneedle will be throttled by crowds leaving Lothbury as choke point; at the other, our boys in black. [Note to Director: Clones must be able to understand that Kettling means bringing the right amount of water to the boil, simmering for hours, extracting the juiciest morsels and storing them in the deep-freeze.]

Perhaps this conceit is too flaky for you, Reader ? How come, then, that the RBS, the most hated of Banks, has its plate-glass wall left entirely unprotected when every other window in The Village had been boarded up ? How come there were no Clones within 60 yards and that none moved until it 26 was attacked ? How come that, on the roof of The Bank of England [the most despised], stood 60 Servants of the State with their HD watching gear ? [You don’t get to get up there without The Governor’s permission !] How come that, high up behind the glass, RBS employees taunted protestors with £50 notes ? And how come the Clones and their Beasts were kept secret from The Committee and so well hidden ?
Now see The Gaffer watching his 100 Monitors. When enough ‘water’ had assembled and just before “The Four Horsemen” could converge, he gives the signal: “Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!” So, as seen from The Gods … Lights! Cameras! Action!

“THE KETTLING”

SCENE 1

Stage Left: Flank to flank Mounted Horsemen appear from nowhere and line up behind shoulder to shoulder black Darth Vader Clones, ‘bats’ at the ready, still and awesomely silent. Slowly, those in the Pit realise they are there. Tension mounts.

SCENE 2

Centre Stage: On cue, a hooded Provocateur smashes a massive iron girder against the plate-glass window. A “Well done” here for the Prop Dept.

[This is when your critic and his daughter unwittingly act into the script by attempting to stop his blows, shouting “We must be Nonviolent !”. This proves predictably futile as his every blow raises a huge cheer of support. He is a Stekhanovite titan remorseless, unstoppable and immune to pleas and pathetic tugs at his arm. We are on the stage created by his back-swing and in full view of a thousand lenses. As we leave in despair, I curse all loudly and roundly for not coming to our aid. A few paces on, a very tall white guy, my age, shaven-headed, long, nicely cut beige coat, leans down and in a well-spoken whisper says: "Ex-Army! Soldier! Front-line! I like what you did there, Sir, but if I were you I’d get out. Quick. You just upset a lot of people, you know, and it only takes one blow and you’re down. That way, over there. OK? Gottit?"]. Who in hell was he ?
Now trapped and crushed and no EXIT signs in sight [who forgot them ?], the crowd becomes a Mob. A psychic entity has been born with self-awareness and a goal. It knows what it wants: Revenge! our species’ most violent emotion. Dissent is pointless; only a Satyagrahi could have stopped it.

SCENE 3

The breaking glass triggers the main move. Beasts and Clones advance slowly squeezing people ever tighter together, pumping up the adrenaline of Fear and Panic. 200 people escape through jagged glass into RBS, conveniently emptied of computers and well sealed from the bankers above. 27 Many were arrested for Trespass or new crimes under the Terrorism Act. “There’s our quota and maybe a bonus. Just the ticket.”

[It is at this point that your Critic and his daughter make their escape, as directed by my soldier, through a scaffolded narrow way. So the rest of this Review is mere anecdote, rumour and double-checked facts.]

SCENE 4

The Power Lines halt, the Mob squeals but is now contained, subdued by overwhelming physical force and the mega-phoned sound-wall. Notice how this Scene is a theatrical breakthrough: the playwright casts the rules of Narrative Thrust aside and insists that it last six or more hours. He clearly hoped for some tele-visual theatrics as the absence of water, food, lavatories or escape routes ratchet up the tension. Men can piss against walls but the women ? The Clones ignore all pleas for help: “Keep them penned, get the Alsatians a-growling and a-snapping, wave your truncheons about, show who’s Boss. Controlling the scared is easy. Lovely job.”

SCENE 5

9pm. After the prime-time News deadline has passed, begin to let the prisoners out. Take Name, Age, Address, Telephone Number, Email, Referee, DNA, Money and Iris Scan. I jest but wait till the next time. “Let them out slowly, belittled, demeaned, tired and weak. That’ll show ’em. Nice one.”

SCENE 6

During the Night. Feed juicy morsels extracted and pictures recorded on to the informal National Database, delete planted provocateurs, store forever and star those with a bit of Previous. “Handy info for ‘a bit of Pressure’ in the future.”

Unfortunately for The Met, “Kettling” has been universally panned by Critics of every persuasion. Its Producers, Directors, Actors, Techniques, PR, the lot have been lambasted. Rather than enhancing a reputation for playing by The Rule of Law, some of their leading front-line actors have been caught cheating, lying, slapping, pushing, beating with shields and ‘bats’ without provocation and, now possibly, killing an innocent citizen. Some hid their numbers and others had Medic inscribed on their jackets whilst wielding a truncheon. More of our millions spent on gizmos and overtime and they catch no one but themselves. It beggars belief !
And the security priorities ? 1. Put VIPs on a virtual island. 2. Tell Village elders to board up. 3. Dress Clones for war. No problem. 4. As for those violent, malevolent hooligans, Kettle, corral and treat as data. Did you 28 know that The Queen’s imperative on all Police Medals reads “Guard my people” ? Now we know how they read it.
So why did they ‘kettle’ the G20 demo ? It was unwarranted but necessary if you accept a wider view. How many Leaders flew home that week to a Police Force less violent than ours ? OK then, who? Three? Now recognise that our IPCC will almost certainly investigate and prosecute according to our rather elegant Rule of Law. Justice could well be done. And how many Leaders would love to import all that ? Lots – even China wants to open up. “So Rejoice in that, thee Nay-Sayers and Cynicks ! Thy cup of Rights is more than half full !”
Now step up a rung on this ladder and look even wider. See how the percentages of the uneducated, the unhealthy and the impoverished continue to grow inexorably, despite ye do-gooders ? See how the democratic, liberal population is dwindling and how an ever-burgeoning majority are oppressed by autocratic regimes, each prepared to use the full force of their armed services to retain power ? [Haim Harari in What is Your Dangerous Idea?, 2006].
Go yet higher and suffer real shock and awe. Can you see the ‘coup du monde finale’ proceed apace ? There, stampeding towards you are The Four Unstoppable Horsemen of Our Apocalypse whipping their vast steeds to a frenzy. The seas rise, the atmosphere deteriorates, the sun burns, our leaders without even a peasant’s remedy for Gaia’s Fever. Pestilence, Famine, War and Death gallop across business-first fields, culling billions: the ignorant, the weak, the poor and those trying to escape. This is our mythic reality.
What then of your despised crowd control techniques ? Think who might pay us to train their own. Won’t you be grateful as you hide with your family and loved ones if your authorities have rehearsed well ? What then of our so civilised principles of Social Justice and Nonviolence ? Who gets in the boat and who has to swim ? Guess who owns the boat. Can anybody even sketch a happy-ending ? Maybe a few, but do we listen ? Elites dream only of the safety of the past; only the young relish the radical, but do we trust them ?
Finally, how does Nonviolence stack up in the real world ? You will be aware of the following position but I rehearse it before you to invite your demolition of it:
“There is no pro-active word to describe Nonviolence because all religious, political, military and cultural elites know they would be unnecessary if its principles were fully followed: inequality is violence. Just as pure Religion seeks paths to Nonviolence so practical Politics seeks ways of applying power: power is violence and depends upon it. All Religions teach Nonviolence until they are controlled by the State: they then abandon its teachings. Whenever a people arm for defence, they will eventually use them for attack. Violence breeds violence; its absence creates a need. The media supply the people with a full daily menu of violence to satisfy this demand: 29 thereby also reinforcing the culture of fear. Fear incapacitates people: thereby facilitating the implementation of power. This is why all successful practitioners of Nonviolence are regarded as enemies of the State.” [Adapted from Mark Kurlansky, Non-violence: the History of a Dangerous Idea, 2007.]

On the 3rd April, we listened to Hazel Blears defend the Police on Question Time. Referring to the demonstrators, she asked us all: “And what would you do if you were confronted by black-hooded hoodlums wielding sticks ?” My daughter turned to me and said: “What a creep !” We had a good laugh at Blears’ willful ignorance and insufferable Brown-nosing. I had no idea I would end up weeks later so very, very gloomy.

John Rowley is a Trustee of the Gandhi Foundation and has organised many events for the Gandhi Foundation including the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Gandhi’s death which was held in St Martins in the Field, London.

Filed under: Politics & Democracy, UK & Europe | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Peter Cadogan (1921-2007)

Posted on February 16, 2008 by gandhifriends

Peter Cadogan, who has died at 86, was once called ‘the most expelled socialist in England’. He campaigned effectively on many fronts for peace, justice and human rights in print, on the streets and through teams of like-minded thinkers.

He moved from radical politics [Labour, Communist, Workers Revolutionary and Socialist Worker Parties] to radical spirituality as he came to the conclusion that William Blake, Gandhi and John MacMurray were his greatest mentors for living a compassionate life. He died a happy man.

Peter Cadogan was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1921 where he witnessed the poverty and humiliation of workers during the Depression. The images of war veterans and unemployed miners begging on street corners stayed with him and drove him all his life.

After working briefly as an insurance clerk, he went on to serve in the Air Sea Rescue Service from 1941 to 1946. This proved to be a profound experience. Desperate attempts to save lives, during which he found authentic friendship with the men under his command, were separated by long periods of inactivity in which he read Shaw, Wells, John MacMurray, Laski and, most importantly, Lenin’s State and Revolution. He realised much later that this book “was a lethal confidence-trick”.

On demobilisation, he immediately joined the Communist Party to which he gave 10 devoted years, thrilling to the ideas buzzing around the Historian’s Group of the CP with Christopher Hill, E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm and others. In the meantime, he studied history at Newcastle University, married, had a daughter and moved to Northampton and then Cambridge to teach history in Secondary Modern schools. He is still remembered in both as an inspiring teacher.

In 1956, Khruschev’s demolition of Stalin came as a blow and, when the USSR invaded Hungary, his sharp criticisms of the CP found their way into the national press. He was suspended and then quit, quickly joining the Labour Party. Two years later, he organised for them the first nuclear base demonstration against the American Thor missiles at Mepal, near Ely.

He became a founder member of the Socialist Labour League which later became the Workers Revolutionary Party and was expelled by the Cambridge Labour Party. Other joinings and expulsions of factions on the Left followed.

In 1960, Bertrand Russell proposed non-violent civil disobedience against nuclear weapons. Cadogan joined his Committee of 100 and their campaign climaxed in September 1961 with a vast but banned demonstration in Trafalgar Square. Russell was arrested along with 1300 others. Early in 1962, Russell sent him and others to the World Peace Council in Moscow where they “staged a free, unlicensed demonstration in Red Square against all Bombs including those of the Soviet Union. The police moved in immediately. It was the first free demo in that Square since the 1920s and made world headlines”.

Within days of the Biafran War starting in May 1968, Cadogan had set up the Save Biafra Campaign and worked vigorously for 18 months getting a lot of national coverage. All to no avail as the Foreign Office “was stuck with the Lugard doctrine of ‘one Nigeria’ and the Wilson Government, as usual, did what it was told. London supplied Lagos with all its arms, ammunition and military advisers. Moscow provided its Air Force and trained its pilots – an unholy alliance to end all such alliances”. About a million innocent people died of starvation.

From 1970 to 1981, he was the General Secretary of the South Place Ethical Society at Conway Hall, known as London’s ‘temple of dissent’. He saw his main task there as defending ‘the rational religious sentiment’, each individual’s ‘sense of the sacred’, and to this end conducted over 50 weddings and funerals. In 1975, he wrote “Direct Democracy: An Appeal to the Professional Classes, to the Politically Disenchanted and to the Deprived. The Case for An England of Sovereign Regional Republics, Extra-Parliamentary Democracy and a New Active Non-Violence of the Centre”, modelling his title on The Levellers and integrating his “revelatory discovery” of William Blake and Friedrich Nietzsche. In it, he pioneered the idea of the gift economy.

This led to him co-founding the organisation and journal Turning Point with economist James Robertson which was published for over 25 years. From 1981 until his retirement in 1993, Peter was Tutor in the History of Ideas in the Extra-Mural Department of London University and the Workers Education Association.

By 1987 he had become disillusioned with all forms of protest and put his energies into what he called positive and practical solutions. From 1993, he worked for The Gandhi Foundation, leading their project in Northern Ireland and advocating Non-Violent Direct Action. He set up Values and Vision and Save London Alliance in his home on the base of his conviction that authentic national democracy can only emerge from local democracies. He became well-known in Kilburn for saving a local park, for Xmas lights on the High Road, his letters to the press and his garden. Local kids called him ‘Mr. Peter’.

During the 1990s he became the subject of great interest to historians, pre-eminent amongst them Professor Kevin Morgan, Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at Manchester University, who interviewed Peter in depth, placed the recordings in the National Sound Archives and anthologised his papers on the CP.

Peter continued to e-mail and write articles and letters to the very end. Throughout 65 years of radical activism, he was never afraid to speak his mind, to challenge and question his own and other people’s thinking. This seemed at first to many as intolerance, even arrogance. In fact, all soon discovered that it was no more than his passion for accuracy and clear thinking in the overall pursuit of justice.

Like Gandhi, he became and remained friends with all his temporary enemies. Over 70 people, old comrades and new friends, came to his bedside in St Mary’s Paddington or sent him messages of love and respect. Peter had co-founded The Blake Society in 1985, was its President for the first four years before becoming Life Vice-President. So it was appropriate that his last days fell during the month of Blake’s 250th anniversary. He quoted Blake’s poems to those around his bed and told us that Blake’s “Jerusalem” ‘said it all’. His dying words were Blake’s moral imperative “Live differently”! Peter did just that, his integrity intact.
John Rowley

Instead of ending his copious and challenging notes, letters and writings “with all good wishes” or something, Peter would say “oxygen, peace, flowers”. I loved that ending: oxygen for the life we breathe in and out; peace, we all yearn for whether secretly or openly; flowers, symbolising nature which surrounds and nourishes. Peter first introduced me to the Northern Ireland Working Group in London which he and I represented within the GF. In the 1980s, we joined a group to visit Dublin to discover more about “the Troubles” from across the border. He was indefatigable in his work and writings, giving great support to those he believed had “got it right” in Northern Ireland. He was a warrior of the right kind and he leaves a gap behind him. Go ye well, Peter. It was rich knowing you.
Denise Moll

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Summer Gathering 2007 – by Denise Moll

Posted on July 7, 2007 by gandhifriends

How does one catch a moonbeam, or a passing week of laughter, learning, sharing, healthy food, cleaning, walking in the hills, staying up late to chatter? As I reflect, my heart is full of sights and sounds of the week just passed and a welling up of gratitude for this oft-repeated event and especially to Graham Davey who has held it all together for over 10 years, making arrangements in the calm, measured way I have come to expect from Quakers.

This was my first full week of being there, and I found it quite a difference from “popping in” for a couple of days! It was our first visit to the Bilberry Hill Centre in Lickey, outside Birmingham, in a large Youth Centre, unattractive at first glance, but providing masses of space, single bedrooms, large communal areas and an easy-to-work-in kitchen. There is a group who attend the Summer Gathering year after year and it’s fun to watch their children growing up and contributing much to the Gathering.

New Friends came too and one person joined on the spot – that we love to see! At the first session we heard excellent talks from David Maxwell, Stephen Petter, Trevor Lewis & Graham about “Gandhi and: Interfaith, Social Justice, Education, Health, Simple Living and Non-violence” – putting us in the right frame of mind to take Gandhi’s thoughts and way of living into the week, however imperfectly. Main sessions thereafter were led by Susan Denton-Brown, along the following lines: understanding our sense of self and our roles in life; our spirituality and how we develop and express it; the wider community – helping create unity in diversity; transforming conflict through nonviolence; healing and sustaining Creation and the environment (with contributions from others too). Susan is producing a course for schools, based on scenes from the Gandhi film, not finished but already drawing interest from educators in the UK and abroad [see Projects page - Ed.].

The pattern of the day goes something like this: 7 am Yoga, led this year by Kala Gunness, 8 am Breakfast, 9 am a gathering of all for Silence, followed by thanking, information, difficulties, hopes for the day; 9:30-11:30, the main session (see above). Shramdana (giving work voluntarily) follows, and in teams we clean, tidy, hoover and cook a simple lunch of tasty soup, salad and fruit. The afternoons are for craft work, walking, taking the youngsters to play tennis or swim and, for some of us, resting! The Shramdana team prepare a delicious supper of, e.g. rice and a massive vegetable casserole, apple crumble, under the competent eye of Ken Scott, overviewing meals. And then we are ready to start evening activities around 7:30 pm.

There is much talent within the group, and we heard some fascinating accounts of a charity ‘Treelink’ which plants trees worldwide for social change and development; about shared community living to help bring healing to society; ‘Swaraj (self-rule) on Mars’ by a member of The Mars Society and how to plan in advance for a nonviolent way of life when the time comes for people to live there!; some moving poems, read by his father, from the son of Nat Sharma, who died prematurely; pictures of two Muslim weddings and a Montessori school in Leh, Ladakh, India; what the Life Style Movement is currently up to; a walk, against Trident, from Glasgow to London, undertaken by Bernie Meyer, also known as ‘the American Gandhi’, and his adventures en route; the Interfaith Seminary by recently ordained Interfaith Minister Mirabai Narayan; and much on the environment, global warming and the work of the Green Party to help right many of the wrongs. Each evening ended with Circle Dancing led by David Maxwell and a final 15 minutes of Silence.

On the last night, following tradition, we threw a sparkling Party, with many contributions of poems, songs, stories, card tricks, games and the young people performing a dance, a puppet show and a play, written and performed by them, about Gandhi on the train in South Africa and his assassination in Delhi. An evening to remember with delight.

Because the Bilberry Hill Centre is outside a residential area there is no collection of recyclable materials. We collected all food waste, cans and bottles, which were taken to the Woodbrooke compost bins and local recycling points. We produced relatively little rubbish and most of that was picked up on the Lickey hills during our walks!

I came away with memories crowding in on each other: conversations, light, serious and teasing fun; scientist Habib Ahmed’s dedicated sharing of carbon information for the next generation; Sarathi’s beautiful, illuminating smile; a window banner made by the young people: “Remember Hiroshima” and later “Nagasaki”; hugging friends; greetings / ‘au revoirs’ and promises of “next year” wherever that might be.

The GF believes this week is of central importance to its work and ethos, helping boost its funds a little, whilst at the same time being of reasonable cost to participants, and the selling of literature to those who genuinely want to know more about Gandhi: “man for our time”.

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