[Aaj-ke-naam] screening- "the fire within"

Tue Sep 24 07:20:43 CEST 2002

Invitation for the screening of a documentary film ‘The Fire Within’  a film on the socio-political, ecological impact of the 150 year old Indian coal industry in the Jharkhand region.   

The Fire Within
(57 min. Colour/Hindi with English-2002) 

       On  what they have  done  to the  coal industry,  and  the people /environment of Jharkhand  spanning  over  150 years. Circa 1775- the first coal mine was blasted in the Raniganj area.  The indigenous people owned this coal   rich land till the British Dispossessed them.  Since 19th century, specially the World Wars and after, the railways were introduced and the extraction of coal began in a big way. These mine were owned by the private parties, who were engaged by ruthless exploiting the nature /human resource. Then came our tryst with destiny, and the story counties without any twist. 25 years after the independence- the Coal industry was nationalised and the situation worsened as the Mafia and corrupt bureaucrat ushered in an era of violent culture. 

Today, while approximately Rs.  1000 crores goes to the government as royalty from the black diamond, four to five thousand crores is siphoned away as black money from the coal industry.  The people, who owned these lands, are left to languish as no one talks about their plight. No rehabilitation, no compensation, no jobs. River Damodar is the most polluted river today.

The open mine literally on fire; there is no water and the land has turned totally infertile.  From being owners of land the indigenous people are forced to turn into coal stealers in the eyes of the law.

 The Fire Within draws a painful portrait of the transformation of the land of the Tana Bhagats; a sect of the oraon tribe who were beliverers of non-violence and Ganghian philosophy to a land witnessing violent Naxalite movement today.

At the same time it talks about the mafia, corruption, the energy politics, - how a peaceful area is declared a disturbed area. Now the whole area is under control of under ground Maoist gorilla groups.

 A Film by Shriprakash 

kritikashri at yhaoo.com

Schedule 

  24th Sept. Tuesday

 at Sophia Polytechnic at SCM  at 11.45a.m sharp 
 Programme coordinators are Anupama and Jeroo Mulla Tel. 3671104 

You should reach there by 11.30 a.m. 
The address is SCM at Sophia Polytecnic,Sophia College off Warden rd. 

 24th Sept. Tuesday  

at 7 p.m. organised by CITU, Bhandup Sagharsh Karyalaya at Bhandup 
 Contact Vivek Monteiro Tel. 5690145,  9869212874 

You should reach there by 6.15 p.m. 

 26th Sept  Thursday 

Two screenings: at 4p.m and 6p.m. 

at Comet Media Foundation,Muncipality School,1st Topiwalla Lane,opp.

Lamington Rd. Police Stn. B,bay 7 

Contact Chandita( 3869052)and Seema(tel. 3850827,3075231)

 broadcaster at syhlleti.org wrote:OUR MEMORY

The Jews were the people who made a unique contribution to history by
becoming almost isotropic in human history without having a home, promised
often but not materialized till the middle of this century. We, Syhlletis -
in a strange paradox of ethnic nomenclature is still known by that prefixed
geography which no longer owns us nor we can own it in concreteness. We are
a strange noveau race - sharing some of the dilemmas of Jews in a smaller
sphere but have some strking peculiarities, compared only to the ethnic
complexities faced by Slavs, Bohemians (now Czech),Phonecians, Austrians.
It will be a wonderful cross examination and cross analysis, destinned to
be taken up by one of our gifted brethern and the work will show the
hysteric aspect of history as well as its madness - but "though its
madness, there is a method in it" and that inherent, subterranean unity
that is often missed by specialists will illuminate our historical tragedy
as well its heirloom.

Dateline 1947:

Syhlletis - around 10 million people speaking a dialect that is a "coarse"
version of Bengali, scattered in a district of Pakistan (now Bangladesh)
called Syllet - in more chaste version - Srihatta scattered around in the
plains and hills of the tropically warm country in the eastern part of the
Indian subcontinent. Freedom and after. Riots. And slowly started the
exodus - sylletis faced the weight of the wheel of history for the first
time - neighbours emerged suddenly very monolithic, shedding the daily
trivialities of chores, they became the monstrous instrument of history,
redefining the geography and population and a chain of fleeing people
slowly started nearing the India-Pakistan international border, towards
India, or rather that part of India which didnt feature very prominently in
the "cakecutting" ceremony that took place in Delhi, Karachi and Calcutta.
The makers of history, were busy cutting that "freedom-cake", ornated by
the map of the subcontinent on the top, and people became numbers,
landscape became square miles, homes became a question-mark in historical
memorandum and the cries of people sublimated into the smell of the freshly
printed referendum paper of the independent country. Sylletis tasted a
prelude of historical abstraction - they were in the verge of what
Austrians faced - *statenloss*, a community without a state except a fast
vanishing concrete piece of land, vanishing slowly into the dimness of
mental landscape and with it, a rootlessness - a faith in the elusive
innocence of future and Future lied towards a enthusism - free India.

Dateline 1971:

Another country is born. A country which is also very strange in the
content of mindscape - a geography that constantly tries to reconcile its
history, the abstraction of history at its most dizzying height where
gurreila warriors recited poetry of the poet of another country (Jibananda
Das), a wonderful subcontinental drift ensued - a three body problem -
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and as historical forces accelerate, today is
forgotten and there looms a huge past and a rusing Future (innocently
irresponsible, just because it hadnt come so far) where people(the people
we know, we know what had in their small, rusty tin trunk, in the faded
black and white daggerotypes, benarasi silk for the next daughter's
wedding, scrolls of papers which once empowered them to their land, but are
mere scrolls, a perfect abstraction of space which does belong but in
another time-space relative co-ordinate) our ancestors, our mothers, our
fathers gets guided not by the daily wisdom but the urgency of historical
future and Future belonged nowhere, not in any land for there were no
promised land even.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

In line with the historical heirloom, Mr. Binoy Bhattacharjee, ex-Vice
Chancellor of Delhi University had a communication with wordsmith and we
reproduce the entire text which is far beyond than a personal communication
and you can find it here -----

Anybody with syhlleti origin will be fascinated after reading the website -
syhllet, the place, the time, the history, the chemistry of culture and
people- and above all - the sense of loss-colossal, cumulative, echoed in
choral vibrance of absentee individuals. The striking sensitivity of
presentation compels one to look back in wonder and anger, and then they
remunate what it had been, how it got lost and erased, how and where it
still survives. Like Marina of Fericles, syhllet to the sensitive soul, is
a daughter who is lost, but , like Marina , lost alright but may be found
again. Prospero will depart after the Tempest but Miranda and Ferdinand
will revive and rejuvinate. The terrestial process of renewal will be
enacted again. Syhllet will be revived thus again and again to him who
carries the nostalgia in memory.That is about nostalgia, the brasstack
demands attention to who cares or is curious. If an anatomy is drawn with
the Jews, it goes and upto a point. The exodus began with Moses in the Old
Testament. The dispersing went over time and continents. Upto this it is
OK. But after that things fall apart . The Jews retained the identity in
literature (Shakespeare Marlowe); in trade (the bankers in Europe and
America) ; in science and Technology (Einstein; Anto Hahn); in military
power (many generals and warlords). All these waited for a historical
moment to coalesce. That moment came when the British scientist and father
of modern explosives asked by Churchill a reward for his invention. Thus
Israel was born. I believe time will be kind to us as it has been kind to
many others; we have many dreams but some dreams remain only as dreams; and
some become reality. Between such dreams our wishes and aspirations hang
till the issues the Green God.
Till then
With warm wishes Binay K. Bhattacharjee

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