Which fictional character are you?

cccWith this question we gave students one minute to come up with their responses, which they then had to share with us, along with why, in rapid-fire mode. This activity turned out to be great fun with these wonderful youngsters earnestly sharing why they are a character out of Little Women or the Harry Potter series or Schitt’s Creek or The Merchant of Venice (the PeaceWorks team couldn’t resist jumping in either!).

cccNext it was time to discuss the assignment we had previously shared with the students.  We shared with the students i) three different standard definitions of genocide for them to analyse the distinctions between them, and ii) a critical article exploring the complexities of defining genocide (‘How do you define genocide?’, BBC WORLD). Students were then asked to go back to a list of events they had classified as genocides in the previous session (Violence against Uighur Muslims, Rohingyas, lives lost to Partition, Godhra 2002 and JallianwalaBagh Massacre), pick any one, and use verified sources to answer a brief research questionnaire: Name of event; The act of violence committed; Who would they classify as victim and perpetrator; what steps if any have been taken to bring the people involved to justice.

cccThe discussion was animated and interactive as we collectively tried to navigate the blurry outlines of what a genocide means. From discussing what crucial factors go into defining a genocide and what elements help distinguish between other forms of large scale systemic violence and genocides; the importance of legal implications and international recognition in defining a genocide; the role of intent to destroy a group—the conversations took many interesting turns as we tried to analyse which events qualify as a genocide and which don’t, and why.

cccFrom here we moved to the roles of victim, perpetrator, bystander and upstander in situations of discrimination. We offered them a brief introduction to Raul Hilberg’s framing of (three out of four of)these categories and later developments to his framework. After discussing each category briefly in light of Anne Frank’s life, we went on to do a group activity.

cccEach group of students was to come up with one instance of discrimination they have witnessed or been part of, discuss it and decide who played which role in the situation and finally, in an imaginative exercise, attempt to analyse their possible motivations for occupying the roles they did. Situations ranged from family dinner table scenes to discrimination by private hospitals against Covid patients, to historical examples of racist discrimination and contemporary instances of abuse of authority by police against young Muslim women from Kashmir. Each situation was intensely personal in different ways, resulting in a fluid conversation where students bared their thoughts and doubts in trying to address the complexities of categorizing people into the four roles, as well in trying to confront the very human characteristics that often determine our decisions and actions.

-Ranita