Author-activist Noor Zaheer discusses India’s fight for secularism

Lecture on ‘India under Modi and the struggle for secularism,
women’s equality and workers’ rights’

Munir Pervaiz introducing the program and Noor Zaheer 

Noor Zaheer, an author, and a member of the Communist Party of India, is in Canada to inform people about the worsening human rights situation in India under the Narendra Modi government. The first lecture in the series was held at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga Saturday.

Forthright and frank in expressing her views, Noor Zaheer said the Modi government is determined to propagate its peculiar brand of right-wing Hindutva nationalism that is impervious of India’s inherently liberal democratic traditions. She said Modi’s government is not just against the minorities, but even the majority that differ with the Sangh Parivar on the fundamental issue of the basis of Indian

 nationhood.

Analyzing the last two years of the BJP-led government in New Delhi, Noor Zaheer, who is the President of the Delhi unit of National Federation of Indian Women, and the Indian People’s Theatre Association, said that in addition to targeting the minorities, the government has targeted the farmers by several policy decisions aimed at cutting subsidies; the Adivasi (indigenous) population because it occupies lands rich in minerals that the government wants to parcel out to transnational corporations; and against the student community.

Delving deeper on the subject of persecution of the students, she said the determined manner in which Modi’s supporters have been attacking students in universities such as the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the Hyderabad University, and the Jadavpur University reveals that the ultra-right is determined to take control of the educational institutions and prevent democratic debate. Noor Zaheer said writers have a duty to raise their voices against such an oppressive regime.

Earlier, she traced the history of the Progressive Writers’ Association, of which her father Syed Sajjad Zaheer was one of the main founders. She said even writers who have no linkages with the left ideology have returned their government bestowed awards in protest of the Modi regime’s and the Sangh Parivar’s anti-minority actions.

The organizers of the program also launched the book Progressive Ideas and Ideals in Urdu Literature (with special reference to Syed Sibte Hassan and the Progressive Writers’ Association) edited by Khalid Sohail, Omar Latif and Abbas Syed.  Two of Noor Zaheer’s books Denied by Allah and My God is a Woman were also made available at the event.

My God is a Woman is a novel; Denied by Allah is a book that about “stories of women for whom even God does not seem to have mercy.” It “discusses medieval laws irrelevant in the 21st century sexist biases that pass for conventions, life impacting decisions made only by men which have denied women basic respect and protection; dignity and humaneness, often in the name of religion.”

Dr. Khalid Sohail introducing the book 'Ideas & Ideals...'

The program was organized with the support of the following organizations: Alternatives; Centre de recherché et d’action sociales; Committee of Progressive Pakistani-Canadians; Family of the Heart; Hari Sharma Foundation for South Asian Advancement; GTA West Club Communist Party of Canada; Indo-Canadian Workers’ Association; Progressive Writers’ Association Canada; Writers’ Forum Canada, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy.

Photos by Meena Chopra

Cancer, Lal Choona, Saree Stories: South Asian Theatre in Canada

Jawaid Danish

Theatre activist Jawaid Danish works tirelessly to keep South Asian theater alive in Canada. 

He has been organizing the Hindustani Drama Festival annually for over a decade, with a measured success. 

Although a low key affair this year, the festival made up in depth what it couldn't in diversity and variety.

Jawaid read his play Cancer where the protagonist murders his ailing wife who is suffering from cancer and is on her deathbed.

The protagonist is a poor newspaper employee who is not able to afford medicines for his wife, who implores him every day that he either he gives her medicine or murder her. In a fit of desperation, he chooses to murder her.

The play is an imaginary – or rather an anticipatory – situation where the husband’s lawyer walks him through the hearing to coach him to give proper responses on the day of the hearing, which is scheduled the next day.

Cancer is a much lauded play and has had much acclaim across the world; deservedly so, because it is remarkable in being able to bring the reader/member of the audience right to the middle of the debate over euthanasia – which, much like the debate over abortion, divides people into pro and anti groups.

Was the husband justified in murdering his wife? The playwright definitely believes so as much as he believes that the husband didn’t really have a choice because the society didn’t leave him with any.

Pithily, the husband tells the lawyer that the society (the government) that is willing to pay for a lawyer to represent a self-confessed murderer to ensure justice is ill-equipped and unwilling to pay for a sick woman’s treatment.

A lively discussion followed Jawaid’s reading of his play. Munir Saami moderated the discussion and Dr. Khalid Sohail read a critique of the play.

Before the play reading by Jawaid, Dr. Baland Iqbal read his short story – Lal Choona – a heartbreaking story of a poor wall painter’s tragic denouement. Unbeknownst to Dr. Iqbal, the story was made into a short film in Pakistan by a student. The film was also shown at the festival.

And the play reading was followed by a short but charming skit from Saree Stories - Storytelling with sarees where Jasmine Sawant of the Sawitri Theatre Group depicts the significance of the memory of an event that is imprinted on the memory of a woman who remembers meeting her future husband by the sari she wore that day.

The event was held at Open Space – a nice little space created by Nitin Sawant for play readings and other socio-cultural events.