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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20250830T150000
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DTSTAMP:20260824T015002
CREATED:20250420T105621Z
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UID:190-1756566000-1756587600@melanordic.se
SUMMARY:Mela Nordic 2025-  Malmö's first South Asian Festival
DESCRIPTION:We’re thrilled to announce our very first major event in collaboration with Mela Nordic\, Folkets Park\, Råfilm and ABF Malmö  Join us on 30th August for a vibrant South Asian Festival(Mela) filled with dance\, music\, and cultural celebration!  30 Augusti 15:00–21:00 Ridhuset\, Folkets Park – Malmö A stellar lineup of talented artists.Get ready for unforgettable performances!\nMela Nordic\, 30th August- Detailed ProgramVenue: Ridhuset\, Folkets Park\n\n\nProgram Schedule\n14:50 – 15:00: Introduction and welcome\n15:00 – 15:30: Performance: Tagore Choir\nThe Lund International Tagore Choir\, featuring original Bengali songs of Rabindranath Tagore\, along with a Q&A with the choir\n15:45 – 16:05: Performance: Smita\, Anand\, Aneesh\nA Hindustani semi-classical musical ensemble with vocals\, harmonium\, and tabla.\n16:20 – 16:30: Performance: Sahasra Aaradhya Pappu\nWill perform the Bharatnatyam dance on popular songs.\n16:45 – 17:15: Performance: Ali Yari\nTraditional folk music singer and dambura player.\nLink to the artist’s previous performances: https://youtube.com/@aliyari4847?si=BEf1YpZ7NWedoz_n.\n17:30 – 17:50: Performance: Kuchipudi Natayalaya\nA classical dance form of Andhra Pradesh\nLink to the artist’s previous performances: https://youtube.com/playlist…\n18:00 – 18:20: Performance: Edris Durrani\nAfghan singer with electric keyboard\n18:40 – 19:30: Performance: Jojon\nJojon is a Lund-based folk-fusion band blending Eastern traditions with Western sounds.\nLink to the artist’s previous performances: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BxrnVo1PC/?mibextid=wwXIfr\n19:45 – 20:40: Performance: Cok Eym\nSwedish/Turkish band Çok Eym is a groove-driven collective of multicultural funkateers\, fusing gospel\, funk\, and psychedelia into a mind-bending dose of unforgettable Ç-funk.\nLink to the artist’s previous performances: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHtnr3FC2Mn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\n20:40 – 21.00: Mingle\, food\, closing of the programme.\n\n\nFood will be outside next to Ridhuset throughout the programme.\n\nAbout Mela Nordic:\nWe envision a thriving South Asian union where cultural diversity is celebrated\, and mutual respect and understanding form the foundation of our community. We aim to find common ground and stand united against hate and communal divisiveness. We believe in upholding human dignity and non discrimination of marginalized groups. We want to create a safe space for dialogues.\nwww.melanordic.se
URL:https://melanordic.se/event/malmo-south-asian-festival/
LOCATION:Ridhuset\, Folkets Park\, Norra Parkgatan 12\, 214 36 Malmö\, Malmö\, 21436\, Sweden
ORGANIZER;CN="Mela Nordic":MAILTO:info@melanordic.se
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20260704T000000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20260705T235959
DTSTAMP:20260824T015002
CREATED:20260424T055341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260625T132154Z
UID:275-1783123200-1783295999@melanordic.se
SUMMARY:Aman Mela 2026 Stockholm (Aman (امن / अमन)=Peace\, Mela (میلہ / मेला)=Festival\, fair\, or gathering)
DESCRIPTION:Divergent Voices of South Asia\nRethinking Partition\, Reimagining Peace\nAn International Commemoration of the 1947 Partition of the Indian Subcontinent \nMela Nordic\, a South Asian cultural organisation based in the Nordics\, is honoured to present Divergent Voices of South Asia — an international gathering marking the Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947\, an event that birthed the nations of India and Pakistan amidst profound human upheaval and the closing chapter of British colonial rule. \nRooted in Mela Nordic’s vision of a thriving South Asian union where cultural diversity is celebrated and mutual respect forms the foundation of community\, this event moves beyond the familiar binaries of Partition’s grand narratives. In an era where divisive rhetoric continues to shape public memory and political discourse\, we bring together academics\, artists\, writers and activists to examine the enduring forces of creativity\, solidarity and syncretism that offer alternative ways of understanding our shared past — and our shared future. \nOur Guiding Question\nWe come from different lands\, speak different languages\, and carry different memories of 1947. Yet the question before us is not how our voices differ\, but how they can speak to one another. How do we\, across borders of nation\, faith\, and history\, find the common ground needed to build peace and a progressive South Asia? This gathering is dedicated to that conversation — a space where disagreement is welcomed\, dialogue is protected\, and the possibility of reconciliation is taken seriously. \nDivergent Voices of South Asia \nRethinking Partition\, Reimagining Peace \nAn International Commemoration of the 1947 Partition of the Indian Subcontinent \nMela Nordic\, a South Asian cultural organisation based in the Nordics\, is honoured to present Divergent Voices of South Asia — an international gathering marking the Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947\, an event that birthed the nations of India and Pakistan amidst profound human upheaval and the closing chapter of British colonial rule. \nRooted in Mela Nordic’s vision of a thriving South Asian union where cultural diversity is celebrated and mutual respect forms the foundation of community\, this event moves beyond the familiar binaries of Partition’s grand narratives. In an era where divisive rhetoric continues to shape public memory and political discourse\, we bring together academics\, artists\, writers and activists to examine the enduring forces of creativity\, solidarity and syncretism that offer alternative ways of understanding our shared past — and our shared future. \nOur Guiding Question \nWe come from different lands\, speak different languages\, and carry different memories of 1947. Yet the question before us is not how our voices differ\, but how they can speak to one another. How do we\, across borders of nation\, faith\, and history\, find the common ground needed to build peace and a progressive South Asia? This gathering is dedicated to that conversation — a space where disagreement is welcomed\, dialogue is protected\, and the possibility of reconciliation is taken seriously. \nTogether\, they bring Indian\, Pakistani and Kashmiri perspectives into the same room — a rare and vital opportunity for honest\, cross-border conversation. \nPROGRAM SCHEDULE \nDate: 4th July Time: 10:00 – 21:00 Venue: Filmcentrum Riks\, Bredgränd 2\, Stockholm \n11.00: Lunch on your own or with a group. \nWorkshop schedule: \n11:30- 12.00: Questioning normalcy in Kashmir: Sarah Gilley: MA\, (Ph.D Aspirant). \n12:15-12:45: Songs of Love: Dr. Aamir Butt — Writer (UK)\n13 -13:30: Night Of The Elephant Dr. Tariq Mehmood — American University of Beirut (Online)\n13:40- 14:10: India as Media Subimperialism! Dr. Farooq Sulehria —\nTEA Break\n14.30- 15.00: book launch India’s imperial formations. Race in South Asia: Dr. Amrita Ghosh \n15:10- 15:30: The United States of Jammu and Kashmir: Pathways to Peace in South Asia: Shaukat Ali Kashmiri\, Chairman United Kashmir Peoples National Party. \n15:45-16.10 Bridging the Noise: Media and the Art of Solidarity in South Asia: Anuradha Bhasin (Online) \n16.20- 16.45: To build peace in Southasia and beyond\, the importance of dialogue\, solidarity\, economic engagement and collaboration in all areas\, and the importance of letting people meet #MilneDo: Beena Sarwar— Founder Director Sapan News. \nBreak \n18.00- 20:00: Dr. Ali Sher — University of Sussex\, Writer. \nSouth Asia region is bound by millennia of shared history\, language\, cuisine\, music\, and memory. Yet\, it is fractured by some of the world’s most volatile borders and most adversarial diplomatic relationships. While mistrust is often the default posture between states in a noisy neighbourhood\, media\, journalism in particular\, has frequently chosen the path of amplifying chauvinism\, feeding ultra-nationalism\, and treating the neighbour as a permanent enemy rather than a complex society that deserves an honest coverage. \nThis model is not sustainable\, and the cost of continuing down this path is one South Asia cannot afford. The region faces existential shared challenges – climate crisis\, endemic poverty\, deteriorating public health systems\, mass illiteracy\, and deepening threats to democratic institutions that no single nation can address in isolation. Yet collaboration is near-impossible in an information ecosystem in which citizens are fed distortions\, silences\, and caricatures of one another rather than authentic\, reported understanding. \nStructural and political pressures that have turned newsrooms into instruments of statecraft that need to be understood\, challenged and combated. In striking contrast to this existing ecosystem\, how can media\, built on people-to-people engagement and collaboration\, rather than government-to-government hostility\, look like? How can cinema\, literature\, and the arts\, through the shared appreciation of a song\, a film\, a moment\, folk forms\, and poetry\, provide the connective tissue that official channels block? Recent geopolitical realities reveal that a divided and constantly hostile South Asia will become irrelevant. How do we envision an editorially independent cross-border media collaboration\, not as idealism\, but as a regional survival strategy? \nDr. Amrita Ghosh \nIndia’s Cultural Productions and the Making of the Nation State\,” draws on my recentmost book India’s Imperial Formations to examine how cultural productions such as films and media expression have been central to imagining and consolidating India as a postcolonial nation. It foregrounds literature\, visual culture\, and mediascapes as active sites where imperial power and nationalist aspirations intersect. The talk also traces how postcolonial formations continue to negotiate the residues of empire\, revealing the persistence of imperial logics in contemporary socio-cultural and political imaginaries. By reading across varied visual and filmic texts\, it argues that the ideology of the nation is continually produced and reinforced through narrativizing the nation’s political signifiers ithrough cultural productions. By using cinematic examples\, the talk highlights the intertwinings of race\, neocolonial techniques\, caste and religious reimaginings in the ongoing making of the nation. \nDr. Farooq Sulehria \nIndia as Media Subimperialism!\nMedia Subimperialisms and the Rise of Global South (PalgraveMacmillan\, 2026) will speak on his recent book. \nDr. Aamir Butt \nSongs of Love\nIn this talk I will try to present the efforts poets of Pakistan and India have made over the years to foster peace. \nDr. Tariq Mehmood\nTariq’s forthcoming historical novel\, Night Of The Elephant (working title\, Daraja Press\, 2027)\, follows the rise and fall of Alexander the ‘Great.’ Tariq says: “Alexander is the Tarzan of antiquity — wielded across centuries as a symbol of white supremacy and colonial conquest. The undefeated genius who crushed all in his path. But is this true? In 326 BCE\, on the banks of the Vitastā (Hydaspes/modern Jhelum\, Pakistan)\, the army of King Puru (Porus) — with his war elephants\, the people’s resistance\, and the land itself — rose to defy and defeat the invader.” \nThe novel is narrated through storytellers and witnesses\, drawing on classical Greek sources reversed and reframed through the lens of those who resisted. Tariq adds\, “Alexander is a living ghost in the imperial machine. We need to reclaim the unifying history of resistance and build a new South Asia\, free from obscurantism and military jingoism.” \nThe unbroken raag: Music\, memory and echoes of partition: Dr. Ali Sher \nDid the Partition of 1947 divide music as well as land? This presentation explores how raag-dari   (khayal) – South Asia’s classical music tradition – lived through the rupture of borders. \nDrawing on ethnographic research in Pakistan\, Dr Ghulam Ali Shair traces how musicians navigated new national frameworks\, shifting institutions\, and the loss of shared cultural spaces. Yet these traditions were never fully contained by borders. Musical lineages\, repertoires\, and practices continued to travel\, carrying memories of a connected past. Rather than focusing only on loss\, this talk asks what survives\, and what still connects across a divided subcontinent. Raag-dari emerges here as both an archive of Partition’s afterlives and a living practice that unsettles the idea of fixed cultural boundaries. \nThe presentation will include a short live flute performance\, bringing these questions into sound. It invites audiences to listen differently: to hear music not just as heritage\, but as a border-defying force that sustains continuity\, memory\, and shared experience across South Asia.\nThis presentation examines a thought-provoking yet under-discussed concept: could a unified\, federal “United States of Jammu and Kashmir”—bringing together the territories currently divided among India\, Pakistan\, and China—offer a path to lasting peace in South Asia? \nFor nearly eight decades\, the Kashmir conflict has shaped the political\, economic\, and security architecture of the subcontinent. It has produced three wars\, persistent militancy\, large-scale displacement\, and ongoing military tension between two nuclear-armed neighbours. Yet the voices most affected by this conflict—the Kashmiris themselves—have rarely been the primary authors of their own political future. \nDrawing on historical proposals ranging from United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 (1948) to the Musharraf–Manmohan Singh back-channel negotiating framework (2004–2007)\, this presentation considers what a hypothetical federation might offer: a reduction of nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan\, the revival of ancient inter-regional trade routes\, the redirection of vast military expenditures toward development and climate-change response\, and the transformation of a flashpoint into a bridge between civilisations. \nThe presentation does not shy away from hard realities. It examines why none of India\, Pakistan\, or China would easily relinquish territory; why the region itself—Jammu\, the Valley\, Ladakh\, Gilgit-Baltistan\, and Azad Kashmir—holds diverse political aspirations; and why an imposed unity could generate new conflicts rather than resolve old ones. It then turns toward more pragmatic “soft” approaches: softening the Line of Control\, expanding autonomy on both sides\, gradual demilitarisation\, and shared mechanisms for trade\, the environment\, and human movement. \nThe Nordic context is especially well-suited to this conversation. The region’s tradition of mediation\, its experience of reconciling cross-border identities\, and its commitment to multilateral peacebuilding offer important lessons for this long-standing South Asian conflict. \nUltimately\, the presentation argues that whether or not a “United States of Jammu and Kashmir” ever takes concrete form\, the principle behind it—that lasting peace in South Asia requires centring the voice\, agency\, and welfare of Kashmiris—deserves serious attention from policymakers in Delhi\, Islamabad\, Beijing\, and the international community. \nSarah Gilley Fragile\, University of Central Florida.  Normalcy in Kashmir \nYour presence will enrich this dialogue. Join us in creating a safe space for conversation\, in honouring those whose lives were shaped by Partition\, and in working together toward a South Asia defined not by the lines that divided us\, but by the humanity that still connects us. \nMela Nordic — Art\, Culture\, and Human Rights \n  \nTogether\, they bring Indian\, Pakistani and Kashmiri perspectives into the same room — a rare and vital opportunity for honest\, cross-border conversation. \nEvent Details\nMore Details coming \nDate: 4-5th of July Time: 10:00 – 20:00 Venue: Filmcentrum Riks\, Bredgränd 2\, Stockholm \nRegistration: [please insert registration link or contact details] \n\nYour presence will enrich this dialogue. Join us in creating a safe space for conversation\, in honouring those whose lives were shaped by Partition\, and in working together toward a South Asia defined not by the lines that divided us\, but by the humanity that still connects us. \nMela Nordic — Art\, Culture\, and Human Rights
URL:https://melanordic.se/event/aman-peace-mela-festival-2026-stockholm/
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