Tag: letter

Thomas Merton’s ‘Letter to a Young Activist’ Speaks to Our Times as Well

The letter is a wise and nuanced reminder of the responsibility of conscientious people to do what they can during times of great injustice without succumbing to despair and burnout.

Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian and scholar of comparative religion whose bestselling autobiography The Seven Story-Mountain (1948) inspired thousands of young Americans (many of whom had just survived a world war) to join convents and monasteries, and devote their lives to contemplation, service and prayer.

The turbulent period of the 1960s had a profound effect on Merton who found himself speaking and writing more about the problems and injustices of this world than the glories of the next. “The world is full of great criminals with enormous power,” he wrote, “and they are in a death struggle with each other. It is a huge gang battle, using well-meaning lawyers and policemen and (religious leaders) as their front, controlling papers, means of communication, and enrolling everybody in their armies.”

Thomas Merton. Credit: www.merton.org

Merton lent his voice to the nationwide youth protests against American involvement in the Vietnam war, and in 1966, he wrote a letter to Jim Forest, a young activist and founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, who had grown deeply discouraged about the ongoing brutality of the war and the indifference of many Americans to it.

Though some of Merton’s terminology may not resonate with those who do not believe that ‘there is a divinity that shapes our ends’, the letter is, nonetheless, a wise and nuanced reminder of the responsibility of conscientious people to do what they can during times of great injustice without succumbing to despair and burnout.

Dear Jim,

Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on … you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea you start to concentrate more and more not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. And there too a great deal has to be gone through, as you gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down, but it gets much more real. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything. 

You are fed up with words, and I don’t blame you. I am nauseated by them sometimes. I am also, to tell the truth, nauseated with ideals and with causes. This sounds like heresy, but I think you will understand what I mean. It is so easy to get engrossed with ideas and slogans and myths that in the end one is left holding the bag, empty, with no trace of meaning left in it. And then the temptation is to yell louder than ever in order to make the meaning be there again by magic. Going through this kind of reaction helps you to guard against this. Your system is complaining of too much verbalizing, and it is right. 

This country is SICK, man. It is one of the sickest things that has happened. People are fed on myths, they are stuffed up to the eyes with illusions. They CAN’T think straight. They have a modicum of good will, and some of them have a whole lot of it, but with the mental bombardment everybody lives under, it is just not possible to see straight, no matter where you are looking.

As for the big results, these are not in your hands or mine, but they can suddenly happen, and we can share in them: but there is no point in building our lives on this personal satisfaction, which may be denied us and which after all is not that important. 

So the next step in the process is for you to see that your own thinking about what you are doing is crucially important. You are probably striving to build yourself an identity in your work and your witness. You are using it so to speak to protect yourself against nothingness, annihilation. That is not the right use of your work. All the good that you will do will come not from you but from the fact that you have allowed yourself, in the obedience of faith, to be used by (a greater) love. Think of this more and gradually you will be free from the need to prove yourself, and you can be more open to the power that will work through you without you knowing it. 

The great thing after all is to live, not to pour out your life in the service of a myth: and we turn the best things into myths. If you can get free from the domination of causes and just serve the truth, you will be able to do more and will be less crushed by the inevitable disappointments. Because I see nothing whatever in sight but much disappointment, frustration, and confusion.  

The real hope, then, is not something we think we can do, but in God who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see. If we can do (what’s right), we will be helping in this process. But we will not necessarily know all about it beforehand…. 

Enough of this… It is at least a gesture… I will keep you in my prayers.

All the best…

Tom

Rohit Kumar is an educator with a background in positive psychology and psychometrics. He can be reached at letsempathize@gmail.com.

Actors, Filmmakers Write to I&B Ministry Against Merger of Films Division, NFAI With NFDC

The signatories opposed a move to “restructure/merge” the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI), Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), Films Division (FD) and National Film Archives of India (NFAI), with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

Mumbai: Actor Naseeruddin Shah, filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane and lyricist-writer Varun Grover were among 850 signatories to a letter on Tuesday opposing the merger of public institutions, including the Films Division (FD) and the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

The letter, sent to the ministry of information and broadcasting, has also been signed by academics, students, and members of civil society, among others.

It opposed the government’s proposed move to “restructure/merge” the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI), Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), FD and NFAI with NFDC, which was announced in December 2020.

The letter stated that the move, which was taken without consultation with the stakeholders, is a matter of concern due to the “lack of clarity and transparency in the process of this merger”.

In December last year, the Union cabinet had approved the merger of four government film media units with the NFDC with an aim of converging activities and resources and better coordination to ensure synergy and efficiency in achieving the mandate of the bodies.

“Since the MIB’s (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) announcement of re-assessment of these units in January 2019, we have followed several notices issued by the government. We hoped that an exercise as important as this will involve detailed discussions with the stakeholders including members of the film fraternity and the employees of the above-mentioned institutions amongst others.

“Hence, it was a surprise to know that the High Powered Committee under Shri Bimal Julka submitted its report without engaging with the primary stakeholders. The fact that this report has not been made publicly available despite an RTI application raises further questions about the legitimacy of the whole process,” the letter read.

It raised concerns over the inaccessibility of the report, especially in light of the recent announcement of the government to shut down “three of these units as early as January 2022”.

According to the letter, drafted by filmmakers Prateek Vats and Shilpi Gulati, the decision of the government has led to speculation that it eventually aims to “privatise” film archives and government properties.

It called the ministry’s decision to close the FD and NFAI a “catastrophe in the name of Indian film heritage”.

“As critical stakeholders in the matter, we are concerned about the lack of clarity and transparency in the process of this merger. There is widespread speculation in the media that the entire exercise is a precursor for future privatisation of our film archives and government properties.

“Given the urgency of the matter, we request the ministry to clarify doubts to assuage the suspicions arising at this stage and take immediate action to safeguard the history of Indian cinema and the future of Indian filmmakers who have been closely associated with these institutions in varied capacities.”

The signatories to the letter include filmmakers, actors, writers, editors from the country such as Nandita Das, Anand Patwardhan, Gitanjali Rao, Nimisha Nair, Nishtha Jain, Shama Zaidi among others.

The letter listed grievances including a request to release the report of the High Powered Committee headed by Bimal Julka “immediately”.

“Public funded institutions like FD, NFAI and CFSI must not be merged with a corporation like NFDC. Consultations in a transparent and open manner should be undertaken with various stakeholders including filmmakers and employees vis-a-vis these institutions and how they see them with full autonomy, enhanced state funding and commitment to their original mandates.

“The government must declare the FD, NFAI, CFSI archives as National Heritage funded by public money and belonging to the general public. It must commit to protecting the archives and give written assurances in the Parliament that they will not be sold or auctioned either now or in the future. Concerns and anxieties of the employees working at these public institutions should be addressed at the earliest,” it read.

The letter emphasised that the said government institutions will function efficiently when they have “enhanced autonomy” and greater state funding.

The government must take up the responsibility to empower them and actively work towards the preservation, nourishment and propagation of the country’s cinema heritage and culture “painstakingly built by government employees, filmmakers, archivists, students and film enthusiasts of our country”, it further read.

“In view of the above, we demand the current process of re-structuring of these public institutions should be put in abeyance till the pending issues of transparency and public consultation are addressed. We sincerely hope the ministry will take cognizance of our grievances,” it added.

(PTI)

‘Don’t Need Hindutva Certificate’: Maharashtra CM, Governor Spar Over Reopening Temples

Koshyari had asked Thackeray if he had turned “secular” considering that he had denied permission to reopen temples in the state.

Mumbai: Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray have got into an acrimonious exchange over the opening of temples in the state.

In a two-page letter, written with a clear sarcastic overtone, Koshyari had asked Thackeray if he had turned “secular” since he had denied permission to reopen the temples in the state. In response, Thackeray retorted that he did not need a “Hindutva certificate” from anyone.

Maharashtra has been one of the worst affected states in India in the pandemic. With no let up in COVID-19 cases in the state, Thackeray had decided to keep temples shut, citing that they lead to large gatherings which pose a risk of spreading the disease.

Koshyari’s letter is in line with BJP’s, which has, from time to time, demanded that temples be reopened.

“You have been a strong votary of Hindutva. You had publicly espoused your devotion for Lord Rama by visiting Ayodhya after taking charge as Chief Minister. You had visited the Vitthal Rukmini Mandir in Pandharpur and performed the puja on Ashadhi Ekadashi,” Koshyari had written in his letter.

He had attempted a further jibe with a question on whether Thackeray had received a “divine premonition” which has made him constantly postpone the reopening of places of worship. “Have you turned ‘secular’ yourself…a term you hated?” he had asked in the letter.

Also read: President’s Rule in Maharashtra: How Constitutional were Governor Koshyari’s Actions?

That Thackeray did not take this letter lightly became apparent in his response on Tuesday, October 13. The chief minister said, “You ask if I am getting divine premonitions? Maybe you get them, I am not so big,” he wrote back in Marathi.

The governor had also accused the CM of locking up “gods and goddesses” during the lockdown. It is “ironical” that bars, restaurants, and beaches were allowed to open, and “our gods and goddesses have been condemned to stay in the lockdown”, Koshyari had written in his letter.

Last month, amid the controversy around actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, Koshyari had chosen to meet actor Kangana Ranaut at the governor’s residence in South Mumbai. Ranaut, who had been openly attacking the Maharashtra government, and Mumbai police in particular had claimed that she felt “insecure” in the city and that Mumbai resembled PoK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir).

The governor’s decision to meet Ranaut despite her constant attack on the state government had not gone well with the Shiv Sena and in his response today, Thackeray, without taking Ranaut’s name said, “Inviting people who call Mumbai PoK with smiles does not fall into my definition of Hindutva”.

Following Koshyari’s letter, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar also sent out a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi slamming the governor’s approach towards the issue. “I am shocked and surprised to know that the letter of the Governor was released to the media and also the kind of language used in the letter which does not behove well for a person who holds a constitutional position,” Pawar wrote to the prime minister.

He further added, “I am sure you [PM Modi] too would have noticed the intemperate language that has been used. In the very Preamble of our Constitution the word ‘secular’ is added that equates and shields all religions and hence the Chair of the Chief Minister must uphold such tenets of the Constitution. Unfortunately Honourable Governor’s letter to the Chief Minister invokes the connotation as if written to the leader of a political party,” Pawar retorted in his letter posted on his social media handle.

This is the second letter by Pawar against Koshyari to the prime minister. Pawar and Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut had in April written to Modi, complaining about Koshyari’s “interference” in the state’s administrative work.

Koshyari and the present tri-party government of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, has been at loggerheads right since the government was formed in the state. Koshyari is a staunch RSS supporter, a former BJP functionary and has openly sided with the BJP on more than one occasion.

In November last year, the governor had participated in a covert swearing-in ceremony of BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as the state’s CM and NCP leader Ajit Pawar as the deputy CM in the early hours of the day. Within three days, however, the duo had to resign after failing to garner enough MLAs to form a government.

Koshyari has remained critical of the Sena-led government and during the COVID-19 crisis in the state has openly criticised its handling of the problems.