|Book Release| Fear and forgiveness: The Aftermath of massacre
PUCL-K and ALF book release
PUCL-K and ALF organised a book launch of Harsh Mander’s, ‘Fear and forgiveness: The Aftermath of massacre’ at 6pm, on 5th September 2009 at Institute of Agricultural Technologists, 15 Queens Road, Bangalore. To take forward the discussion on what Harsh’s work means for Karnataka the launch was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Fear and forgiveness: What lessons Gujarat has for Karnataka’.
- It was chaired by Prof Hassan Mansur of PUCL-K.
- Harsh Mander made some initial comments on ‘Fear and forgiveness’.
- Clifton Rozario and Arvind Narrain spoke on “Lessons of Gujarat for Karnataka: Reflecting on ‘Fear and Forgiveness’”.
- Pattabhirama Somayaji: Reflections on the communal situation in Dakshina Kannada
- Sanjana: Modes of communal mobilising in Karnataka
A Brief Biography
Harsh Mander joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1980. Initially he was assigned to work in Madhya Pradesh, and later to Chhattisgarh. In 1984,
Harsh was an additional collector of Indore where the collector was Ajit Jogi, later chief minister of Chattisgarh. The same year, Indore witnessed riots against the Sikh community and Harsh Mander took charge of Indore controlling the riot within hours of its outbreak which is why he was outraged when the state government did not respond to the cry of help by the people of Gujarat. It was his grief against the bureaucracy’s need to be partisan that he resigned in 2002. He has published a collection of essays titled Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives published by the Penguin Books (2001) and Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre (2009)