This past Saturday from 12–5 pm, the Rensselaer Bengali Community, the Pakistani Students Association, and the Indian Student Association collaborated to host the South Asian conference in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies Auditorium. The event also featured a charity lunch, the proceeds of which will go to the Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness core program of the Taraqee Foundation, which strives to alleviate poverty and empower low-income communities, and My Sister’s Place, which provides confidential shelter, programs, education, and advocacy for battered women and their children.
This year, the guest speaker was Shobhan Bantwal, who has published two books, The Dowry Bride and The Forbidden Daughter. Bantwal provides a unique insight in her books about alarming issues such as bride burning and female feticide. Every year half a million girls are prevented from being born, and 3,000 women are burned unnoticed (the case of the beheaded woman in New York has certainly caught people’s attention). While these serious social topics are the central point in them, Bantwal sells her novels as “Bollywood in a book,” as she is a hopeless romantic. She explains in her writing workshop that emotion is the essence of writing, as it draws readers in and keeps them turning the page, citing examples of New York Times Bestseller authors, most of whom either have a background in romantic writing or are romance writers. She adds that the romance in her books prevents them from being excessively loaded with gory details, which repulse readers. Bantwal is certainly raising awareness about very important issues and has two more books coming; her third book, The Sari Shop Widow, will be set in Edison, N.J. Visit http://www.shobanbantwal.com/ to learn more about this Indian-American author of romance novels and short stories set in India and the U.S.
In addition to this published writer, the event also featured Sanjay Kaul, who gave a very informative presentation about the Jammu and Kashmir turmoil in South Asia. Kaul was the president of the Kashmiri Overseas Association—a non-profit organization that strives to promote Kashmiri Pandit ethnic and socio-cultural heritage and provides financial assistance to the needy—for two terms, and is a life member. The multi-ethnic region of Jammu and Kashmir has been through numerous political shifts throughout history, from King Ashoka, Muslim-Sunni rule, Muslim-Shia rule, Mughal rule, Argan rule, Sikh rule, and finally the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar (Rajput). In 1947, the Indian Independence Act, which caused the partition of Hindustan into Pakistan and Inda, raised ambiguities when the Kashmiri rule decided to stay independent. When Pakistan invaded Kashmir on October 22, 1947, incorporating the land into India took five days, after much ethnic cleansing of Hindus. Since then, Pakistan has invaded the region in 1965, 1971, 1989, and 1999 (covert operations Kargil war). Currently, while the violence is at a smaller magnitude, only 40 percent of the population has access to water, and the literacy rate is only 48 percent. India’s state budget of $3.3 billion has allowed for progress in the region with the establishment of the J&K Bank and, most recently, the 63 percent turnout observed in the 2008 election.
The conference was extremely comprehensive, as it also featured the opinions of Khalid Ibrahim Khan, president of Jammu Kashmir People’s Party and an elected member of the Kashmir Legislative Assembly. He has represented Kashmir in several international conferences, most recently at the Kashmir Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2004. The student conference brought awareness to the RPI community and instilled a concern for overseas issues, which will hopefully leave attendants with a greater consciousness of global issues.
