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Report of
inter-collegiate workshop on
youth sensitisation and AWARENESS FOR
‘peace and communal harmony’
17th to 19th February 2012
Jointly Organised by: Centre for Study of Society and
Secularism (CSSS) & Matru
Seva
Sangh
Institute of Social Work.
Venue: Prakriti Campus, Lonar, Nagpur Dist.,
Maharashtra
No. Participants: 35 ( Students from various
Social Work colleges in Nagpur. )
The venue of the workshop was at Lonar Village of Nagpur
District, which is almost 12 km away from Nagpur City.
The participants and the resource persons for the first
day of the camp reached the venue on 09.30 am in the
 morning
itself. Participants were MSW students from various
colleges around Nagpur.
The first two sessions were by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
on ‘Religion and Culture’ and ‘Cultural Diversity in
India’. Starting with question regarding religion,
culture, how they are differentiated Dr. Engineer
elaborated the topic with examples from cultural
practices in India. The objective of the session was to
sensitise the participants regarding the difference
between culture and religions, which is often mixed and
misused by communal politicians to create conflicts in
the society. The session was live with number of
questions from the participants.
Afternoon session was the screening of the feature film
movie ‘Road to Sangham’..
The film is ‘a simple story of God fearing, devout
Muslim Mechanic named Hashmat Ullah, who has been
entrusted the job of repairing and old ford Engine, not
knowing the historic significance that it once carried
the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi which were immersed in the
holy river ‘Sangam’. He is caught in a complex situation
after a powerful
 explosion
rocks his town leading to the arrest of innocent Muslim
youths of his locality. A strike to work is called by
the prominent Leaders of his community to protest
against the unjust treatment meted out to those arrested
youths by the police. Hashmat Ullah get caught in
between ‘supporting the protest by abandoning the repair
work’ and his desire to get Mahatma’s work done. The
film is a journey through Gandhian values and
principles.’
After the break by 6.00 ‘O’ clock all the participants
assemble back in the hall for a discussion on the film.
They were divided in to three groups and the major
points in the group discussion were presented by each
group. The discussions were not just limited to the
movie by to the sessions by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer in
the morning.
The second day of the camp started with the presentation
of report and ‘camp news paper’ by two groups. Report
carried out a briefing of previous day’s sessions and
discussions and the news paper covered all that happened
in the
 camp
even outside the hall. Followed by this Dr. John
Chellaiduran took his session on ‘Role of youth in
conflict Resolution’. The session examined the root
causes of conflict. How one individual is connected with
the other in the society, and how the disturbance in
this leads to conflict. The session was in an
interactive mode.
The second session of the second day was by Dr. Yugal
Rayalu on ‘Civil Society Movement – Recent trends’. The
resource person analysed the recent ‘civil society’
movement for Lok Janpal by comparing it with the peoples
movements taken place in the history such as Abbedkar’s
Movement, Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement, EVR Periyor’s
movement, Martin Luther King’s movement etc. In his
power point presentation he critically examine what is
lacking in the recent movement against corruption and
it’s class nature.
Post lunch session was by Dr. John Menachery on ‘Gender
Discrimination’. In his power point presentation he
discussed with the participants the socio
 cultural
reasons behind the gender based discrimination existing
in our society. With statistical data’s he could
convince the participants the alarming situation in this
regard.
Next session was on ‘Prejudice and Bias against the
other’ by Mr. Riyas V M. The social psychology behind
formation of prejudice and bias against groups other
than ours was the major discussion in the session. How
this prejudices leads to conflicts between various
caste, religion, language, race, gender based groups
were also examined in the session.
The third day of the session also started with the
presentation of report and camp news paper by two other
groups. Participants gave their suggestion and
 comments
on this. After these next two sessions of last day of
the camp was Dr. Ram Puniyani on ‘Indian National
Movement’ and ‘Rise of Communalism in India’. The
historical context of origin of communalism in India,
communal politics before and after independence,
communal propagandas, misuse of religion by politicians
etc were the major points discussed in the session. In
his simplistic way of question answer mode of presenting
the topic, he could clarify many of the myths in
participants mind.
In the valedictory session at the end, feed backs from
both participants and organisers were taken. Dr. John
Menachery distributed the certificates and Dr. Jyoti
Niswade and Mr. Riyas V M gave the vote of thanks.
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