Citizens for Justice and Peace
CJP’s Fantastic Four Meet the youth leaders who were awarded the CJP Grassroots Fellowship 2020-2021
25-Dec-2021
It cannot be called a typical scholarship, given how the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) Grassroots Fellowship completed its first year in 2021, is unique in many ways. The four young people chosen this year have displayed rare talent and helped showcase stories of real people living with limited resources, often crushing poverty, in…
Diwali may be over, but festive memories linger on A sneak peek into the flavours and fragrances of a tribal celebration
23-Nov-2021
Diwali has gone by, but as it is one of the biggest festivals of the tribal community, the sweet taste of the celebrations lingers on. And a perfect way to recall that enthusiasm is to share the history of the foods that are a central part of the celebrations. The festivities, like farm and forest…
How can you ever ‘resettle’ an ancient way of life? Resettlement not always constructive rehabilitation, forest dwellers face the loss of identity
27-Mar-2021
CJP Fellow Mohammed Meer Hamza travels to the resettlement area of Gendikhata, in Uttarakhand, and meets a rehabilitated Van Gujjar, and learns that resettlement does not always mean constructive rehabilitation for forest dwellers, who now face the loss of identity. The rehabilitation of Uttarakhand’s Van Gujjar families from Rajaji National Park to Gendikhata, is not…
Love Azaad! What does freedom to love cost in contemporary India? A webinar to celebrates tales of love and the struggle for rights
15-Feb-2021
On the eve of Valentine’s Day, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) held a day-long event which started with an engaging Instagram live with independent journalist and founder of The Ladies Compartment where CJP Secretary Teesta Setalvad and she discussed the recent love jihad ordinances and answered some questions on the Special Marriage Act this…
Overcoming trauma together: CJP in Assam How we secured a widow’s release from a detention camp to complete her husband's post-death rituals
29-Dec-2020
It was a cold morning. I was awakened by my ringing mobile phone at 5.30 AM. I answered the phone as no one calls me this early given how it is well known that my work keeps me awake till late at night. In fact, I could only go to bed at 3.30 AM, that…
Will the 125-year old Bolpur Poush Mela be held this year? Visva Bharati University first cancelled the fair, then retracted the cancellation
19-Dec-2020
CJP fellowship 2020 researcher Ripon Sheikh, tracks and documents the confusion, around the massive cultural celebration, and the anger that is simmering over its possible cancellation. Poush Mela is regarded as a living heritage of West Bengal, one that has put the culture and vivacity of Shantiniketan in Bolpur on the world map. It celebrates…
Use the Covid Curfew to learn about Forest Rights Oxfam India has launched a course in collaboration with Nagrik Learning and CPR India on understanding forest governance and community rights in India
22-Mar-2020
While the Covid-19 pandemic has grabbed all our attention and the PM of India has announced a ‘Janta Curfew’ in a bid to curb the transmission of the Coronavirus in India, we must while ensuring the safety of ourselves and others, not forget other important issues that plague the country. Forests are the lifelines of India…
Post-NRC, Parties Still Fight on Who Is and Isn’t Indigenous to Assam APW recommends a wide-sweep definition while ITSSA recommends distinction between Assam’s indigenous and tribal peoples
31-Oct-2019
On October 29, Assam Public Works (APW) submitted a list of 48 communities to the high-powered committee established to enact Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. It stated that members of these communities are “indigenous Assamese” and, therefore, are eligible for constitutional safeguards under the clause. The Assam Public Works is the original petitioner that…
The Real Meaning of Republic A photo feature tracing key events that let to the creation of the Indian Republic
26-Jan-2019
These images tell the story of how our Indian Republic came into being. Some are known, but many stories are either less known or completely untold. We invite you to take a walk through history. Also read: The Republic of Memory Lost Your Vote: A Right…
Celebrating Spring with Canada’s Vibrant and Inspiring Sikh Community From the Secretary's Desk
03-May-2018
It was a Punjabi Desi takeover of Surrey, the Baisakhi parade on Sunday April 22 as Avenues of the Sister (neighbourhood) to Vancouver in British Columbia (BC) province of Canada ‘celebrated’ the harvest festival. Back home Baisakhi parades dot Punjab’s landscape as the traditional langar dishes out delicious food to all who walk in and by and…
Be wary of distortion of history, Teesta tells youth The Hindu
29-Mar-2018
‘Time to resist attempts to refashion national psyche’ Social activist Teesta Setalvad has urged the youth to thwart attempts to refashion the national psyche through a sustained manipulation of history. Delivering the Prof. Sukumar Azhikode Commemoration Lecture 2018 on ‘Refashioning Bharat into Akhanda Rashtra’ at Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit at Kalady on Wednesday, Ms.…
UN expert says Latin America violating indigenous peoples’ rights
19-Jan-2018
The Thomson Reuters Foundation reported that, according to a United Nations expert, Latin American countries are violating indigenous peoples’ rights and increasingly imprisoning activists in order to reduce opposition to corporations “taking over ancestral lands”. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview that activists working…
Christmas Gifts!
21-Dec-2017
One of the most meaningful features of the Christmas Season is that of gift-giving! Across the globe, people love to give gifts at Christmas to others – and of course to receive gifts too! Gifts come in a whole range: from the inexpensive yet lovingly hand-made card to perhaps a gold-crusted diamond purchased from an…
Of Hinduism, Tipu and Misguided Bigotry
24-Nov-2017
“Are you not a proud Hindu?” I was being asked by a young BJP supporter Dhananjaya Nayak who struck up a conversation with me in the open-to-sky outer perimeter of the Padutirupathi temple, a beautiful old shrine built in the mid-1530s, in Kerala style by the Goud Saraswat community. Introduced to me by a family friend…