COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

Spaces for Reconciliation and Justice

WISCOMP supported Mr. Harsh Mander, Managing Trustee, Aman Biradari Trust, in a project to study processes of justice and reconciliation in Gujarat. Titled, Communal Socio-political Movements in Independent India: Spaces for Reconciliation and Justice, the project had two components.

• Action research that documents the activities of community based teams in Gujarat engaged in processes of reconciliation that include but also go beyond processes of legal justice. The action research was being systematically documented through a monthly newsletter.

• Academic research, which will looked at how practice and theory could be synergized in the new and emerging field of Reconciliation.

Gender, South Asia and Non-Traditional Formulations of Security

The research initiative facilitated by WISCOMP aims at contributing to a corpus of knowledge both empirical and theoretical and focuses around the manner in which gender and (non traditional) security concerns intersect in South Asia. It seeks to mainstream gender analysis into the evolving discourse on Non-Traditional Security. The aim is also to provide points of entry to engage with issues in a manner in which gender concerns begin to be reflected in peace initiatives and processes of post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation.

The project is an attempt to add to the contemporary discourse which seeks to expand the contours of the security debate, by moving it beyond a narrow military or state-centric preoccupation. It is also envisaged as crucial to the articulation of the concerns of that half of the population whose voices are marginalized in the mega narratives of conflict analysis and peace building. The idea is not to map the terrain of non-traditional security issues per se but to explore the theoretical spaces where these concerns intersect with that of gender.

The “non-traditional” variables of security are now recognized as impacting both inter and intra state security beyond what the cold war discourse cognized or envisaged. The globalized environment of the post-cold war period has thrown up new challenges, threats, new actors and indeed new concerns that decisively change the contours of ‘security’. The outlines of the non-traditional security discourse still seem to be emerging and there appears to be little consensus and considerable ambiguity on what constitutes its domain.

Typically, security concerns today encompass a whole range of ‘extra-territorial’, ‘trans-state’, ‘non-military’ issues from drugs, trafficking, organized crime, displacement of human beings within and across borders, ethno-political tensions and ‘ human security’ concerns such as food and water security, environment crises, state atrocities, human rights issues and so on. It is not difficult to see that gender mediates each of these concerns and may impact male and female populations in dramatically different ways. In fashioning the conceptual vocabulary required to grapple with these new concerns, the alphabet of gender is a crucial, hitherto neglected component.

The WISCOMP project seeks to redress the imbalance by placing gender concerns squarely within the parameters of the evolving discourse on security. “Non – traditional security” is not seen here as an alternative discourse, but as a nuanced refining input to arrive at an expanded and holistic notion of what must constitute security concerns of nation states, both as accountable for the security and well-being of their citizens and as participants in a vastly changed international scenario.

Gender consequently, is not just another ‘non-traditional’ variable in the growing menu of security concerns, but an integral factor that shapes the manner in which they play themselves out. Engendering security is factored into this project as an inescapable element in the formulation of an inclusive discourse.

The studies in this series include:

1. Migration and Circles of Insecurity: Paula Banerjee and Ranabir Samaddar

2. Gender and Armed Conflict in Kashmir: Sudha Ramachandran and Siddharth Mallavarapu

3. Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want? Rethinking Security in Bangladesh: Hameeda Hossain, Meghna Guhathakurta, Malini Sur

4. Ownership or Death: Women and Tenant Struggles in Pakistani Punjab: Rubina Saigol

5. The Centrality of Gender in Securing Peace: The Case Study of Sri Lanka: Kumudini Samuel

6. Gender and Peacekeeping: Experiences from South East Asia

Collaborative Research: Attitudes of Teachers in India and Pakistan: Texts and Contexts

During the course of Conflict Transformation workshops WISCOMP received requests from participants for supporting collaborative research projects undertaken by young professionals from India and Pakistan. It was felt that such collaborative projects could enable participants to engage with each other’s worldviews and jointly generate options for the transformation of the conflict between the two countries.

As a response WISCOMP invited applications from the Conflict Transformation Workshop alumni for a collaborative research award. The first in this series of collaborative research was awarded to Michelle Baxter (Program Officer, Action Aid, Chennai) and Zahid Shahab Ahmed (Program Officer, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Islamabad) for their project titled Attitudes of Teachers in India and Pakistan: Texts and Contexts.

The research sought to explore how teachers in India and Pakistan induce “enemy images” in the minds of students, and how this indoctrination influences processes of peacebuilding and nation-building. It also examined the content of history textbooks and their role in perpetuation of hostility between the two countries. The findings of the research were published by WISCOMP in 2007.