November 14-15, 2009
Honoring Hari Sharma at 75
Organizing Committee, Hari Sharma at 75:
Abi Ghimire, Amarjit Chahal, Bhanu Poudyal, Chinmoy Banerjee, Harinder Mahil, Raj Chouhan, Sarabjit Hundal, Shinder Brar
Dear Friends,
We are friends of Hari Sharma who have come together to celebrate Hari’s 75th birthday in a manner that is appropriate for a person whose life and work have impacted on and been connected with so many of us in the Vancouver area, nationally and internationally. We invite you to participate in the activities we are planning to celebrate not only Hari’s life but the lives that we have all lived in struggle in his company. Some of us have been with Hari since the early 1970’s when he was organizing international support for political prisoners in India, some joined him when he took lead in organizing resistance to the imposition of fascist dictatorship in India by Indira Gandhi in 1975 through the formation of Indian People’s Association in North America (IPANA) (for which his Indian passport was impounded in 1976), and some came into his orbit with his organization of resistance to the ongoing attempt to impose a Hindu-chauvinist, fascistic polity in India through the formation of Non-Resident Indians for Secular Democracy (NRISAD) in 1993 that later developed a wider focus and became South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD).
Hari Sharma taught in the Department of Sociology in Simon Fraser University till his retirement in 1999 as professor emeritus. As a teacher he taught on Marxism and revolutionary struggles inspiring many students, and as a professional he vigorously defended academic freedom and the right of faculty to teach according to their political beliefs without persecution (including the valiant fight he put up to get his own tenure). However, he spent the major part of his enormous energy in the last forty years as an activist in the South Asian and the left community in Vancouver.
The primary focus of Hari’s activities has been the opposition to imperialism at the global level with a particular concern for the impact of imperialism and the struggle against it in India. These have engaged him in anti-war work locally and in the international campaign against nuclear weapons. But at the same time, Hari’s defense of people’s right of self-determination, national liberation, and livelihood has led him to a wide range of activities in support of wars of national liberation and people’s struggles for land, livelihood, social justice, and dignity. Hari has been vigorous in opposition to state repression in the service of Capital and an energetic champion of the rights of political prisoners in India and elsewhere. For the last twenty-five years he has been a passionate defender of the rights of minorities in India, particularly the Sikhs who came under attack from the state and state-sponsored mobs in 1984 and Muslims who came under similar attack beginning with the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. For these activities he was twice denied visa to enter India on his Canadian passport. Recently he has been denied Overseas Indian Citizensihip.
Locally, Hari has been a leader in the struggle against racism in Vancouver through the formation of the British Columbia Organization to Fight Racism (BCOFR) and an inspiration behind the organization of farm workers in British Columbia into the Canadian Farmworkers’ Union (CFU), the first president of which is a part of this organizing committee. Hari has also been a leader in organizing the South Asian community to seek acknowledgement from the Canadian government of the injustice done to our community by the racist policies of the government that turned away the immigrant ship Komagata Maru from the shores of Vancouver in 1914.
As a mobilizing force in support of people’s struggles, a champion of human rights and social justice, and a voice of conscience against the oppression of people everywhere but particularly minorities in India, Hari has brought many people to engage in struggle with him in Canada and the USA and connected with many people internationally. He has been a teacher and guide-and gadfly–of two generations of progressive South Asians in the Vancouver area of BC.
We invite you to celebrate the struggles we have engaged in as a community of faith in human rights, human dignity and social justice in fellowship with Hari Sharma. We plan to hold a conference on topics included under the broad rubric, “Imperialism, Socialism, and People’s Struggles Today” on November 14, to be followed by a celebratory party on November 15. We also plan to produce a publication for the occasion as a gift to Hari. The publication will have three parts: the first will be a set of articles on topics related to Imperialism, socialism and people’s struggles today conceived as a guide to action, the second will be a set of contributions of memories of struggle, which we hope will inform and inspire others, and the third will include a selection of Hari’s photographs of the people of India engaged in the struggle of everyday living.
We invite you to contribute your memories of struggle to this collection. The essay should be no more than three pages. It should be sent to us no later than September 30. Please let us know as soon as possible if we can expect a contribution from you.
We will send you further information regarding the conference on November 14 and the party on November 15 on hearing from you. We earnestly hope that you can join us for these events. We will arrange billeting for all out of town guests.
In solidarity,
Chinmoy Banerjee, for Organizing Committee, Hari Sharma at 75.
July 16, 2009
9155 Wiltshire Place, Burnaby, BC, V3N 4L6. 604-421-6752. cbanerjee@shaw.ca