Dialogue Processes

Dialogic engagement has always been integral to the mission of Athwaas - since the members represent different ethnic and religious backgrounds and also have different political persuasions. They are united through their common conviction that women’s perspectives need to be taken on board in any conflict area and that non-violent change is the path to establishing peace with justice. For WISCOMP, dialogue is integral to the process and dialogic skills form a potent tool in our peacebuilding work.

Breaking the Silence, 2000

In December 2000, WISCOMP organized a Roundtable titled, "Breaking the Silence: Women and Kashmir” to provide a context within which the issues and concerns of the women of Kashmir could be articulated and communicated to a wider audience outside the valley.. The Roundtable was conceived as an interface between those who are concerned and those who are affected by the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Therefore it was broadly divided into two sections- “Perspectives on Kashmir” and “Perspectives from Kashmir”. While the first section included speakers working on the Kashmir problem - academicians, activists and journalists - the second comprised exclusively of those whose lives have been directly affected by the 12 year old insurgency. The idea was to see whether some of the scholarly work being done on Kashmir matched with the empirical realities as perceived by those whose lives have been directly affected. On another plane, it was an attempt to see if there were significant intersections between perspectives on the conflict among those viewing it from the "outside" and those actually caught in its throes.

Inter Faith Workshop, 2005

The interfaith workshop facilitated by WISCOMP in December 2005, in Delhi was a response to the felt needs of the Athwaas group —to link reconciliation processes, educational initiatives and development programs in Kashmir, and to make women visible in each of these. It also sought to respond to another need expressed by Athwaas members —to heal from within so that they can emerge as effective peacemakers. The practice of healing through a multiplicity of techniques drawn from the different faith traditions consequently formed an important component of the interfaith workshop.

Participants from Jammu and Kashmir, both women and men, were drawn from across a variety of religious and ethnic groups, professions, educational backgrounds and ages. Almost all of them had been touched in some form or another by the activities of the Athwaas initiative of WISCOMP, and are part of a larger collective quest — to seek alternate, humane and non-violent spaces for creative expression and dialogue in the midst of active political violence that surrounds their lives.

Workshop on Sustained Dialogue, 2006

WISCOMP organized a one-day workshop for the Athwaas group to explore the concept and practice of Sustained Dialogue. This workshop, titled, Sustaining Dialogic Engagement aimed to provide a space for the group to explore the concept as well as the practice of Sustained Dialogue. WISCOMP consultant Priya Parker conducted the training, leading the group through a short facilitation and active listening training, and then an inter-group dialogue. The goals of the workshop were to:

• Understand and internalize the theory and praxis of Sustained Dialogue
• Deepen and practice dialogue skills: Deep listening and strategic questioning
• Jointly create and experience dialogue today
• Start thinking about whether dialogue is an approach Athwaas wants to take as a project

Women in Dialogue: Breaking New Ground, 2006

A two-day convention Women in Dialogue: Envisioning the Road Ahead in Jammu and Kashmir, was organized by WISCOMP on August 5 and 6, 2006, in New Delhi. It brought together 65 participants from the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, in order to facilitate a dialogue foregrounding gender and civil society engagement.
The convention set out to do the following:

• Identify and critically engage with the existing conceptual and methodological frameworks within which the current peace process in Jammu and Kashmir is located.
• Contribute proactively to the ongoing dialogue in Jammu and Kashmir by placing women’s perspectives squarely on the table.
• Assess the impact of using the alphabet of gender to shape the dialogue process.
• Strengthen the community of women peacebuilders in Kashmir
  

The convention grappled with the concerns: What do the women of Jammu and Kashmir see as the road ahead? Where, if at all, do they locate themselves in the larger peace process that is unfolding? What have been their experiences of the armed conflict and how can this experience shape prospective peace processes? The session Envisioning New Roles for Women brought forth different perspectives on women’s engagement in the peace process.

The panelists:

• Urged women to develop political consciousness and shun apathy;
• Called for inclusive dialogues which move beyond patriarchal frameworks;
• Foregrounded the importance of respect for human rights, secularism and equal opportunities for all.

One of the main components of the convention was the organization of participants into four working groups, each of which discussed and put forth recommendations for the following areas:

• Politics, Law and Governance: Alternative Pathways
• Women, Development and Economic Empowerment: Alternative Pathways
• Cultural Initiatives for Peace and Reconciliation: Alternative Pathways
• Health and Psychosocial Healing

Competing Realities: Identity, Culture and Dialogue in Jammu and Kashmir 2010

A WISCOMP Consultative Workshop was held on the November 29-30, 2010 at New Delhi. The Workshop brought together over 40 academicians,former administrators, civil society actors and political actors from Jammu and Kashmir to unscramble how different ethnic, regional and religious identities have emerged and/or transformed in the state since the Amarnath land dispute, and the impact of these developments on the prospects for dialogue amongst different stakeholders. The Workshop provided a platform to discuss the following:

• The participants’ understandings of identity and politics in    Jammu and Kashmir to help unpack the ‘representation’ of    identities in the public space (since the Amarnath land    dispute, which brought people out on the streets);
• Analyze the factors behind the discontent among the youth    in the Valley and how the handling of this discontent by the    state government has affected collective identities;
• The points of convergence and divergence between the    existing and new faultlines in the current context;
• Deliberate on the ways forward for civil society to impact    policies and processes in view of the constraints and    opportunities identified.

The consultation was attended by Mr. G. K. Pillai, Home Secretary, Government of India and the Team of Interlocutors – Mr. Dileep Padgaonkar, Prof. M. M. Ansari and Prof. Radha Kumar– appointed by the Government to facilitate the dialogue process in the strife ridden state and to search for amicable solutions. WISCOMP will carry forward the recommendations of the participants by organizing follow-up activities with youth and women groups in the state