Havan in the Jail
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Guru Nanak Birthday
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Holi in
Tihar
(National Herald, 5 March 1994)
| The members of the Modern
Health and Yoga Centre along with its secretary, Ms Preeti Arora, has decided to organize Holi
celebration with the inmates of Tihar Jail on March 27, says a Press release. |
Delhi jail’s inmates learn the message of Christmas
(By Christopher Thomas, The Times, London, 26 December 1994)
The 9300 prisoners at Delhi Central Jail, India’s largest are celebrating Christmas and the
New Year with Father Christmas, who is a Hindu with the vaguest knowledge of what it is all about.
Ranjan Kumar Sinha, formerly a circus clown, received a
crash course from foreign prisoners about the meaning of the Christmas message. He said he found
it simple to understand and had no trouble teaching it to fellow Hindus. ‘It is not much
different from Hinduism really. It seems to say the same sort of things.’
Nigel Beardsley, 31, from Maidenhead, Berkshire who has
been remanded in custody on drugs charges for the past 20 months wrote a play called The
Beginning of Life, half in Hindi and half in English with Father Christmas in the starring
role. Most performers were drawn from the 140 foreign inmates, but several Hindus are involved.
Mr Beardsley’s Hindi, learnt while waiting for a
trial date to  |
be
set, is sufficient for the endeavour. ‘We wanted to send the Christmas message of goodwill to
Hindu, Sikh and Muslim prisoners’ he said. ‘It seems to have gone down well. There used
to be misunder- standing between Indians and foreigners, but that has all gone.’
The play is being taken ‘on tour’ during the holiday period to
the four prisons that make up the huge complex on the out-skirts of Delhi. The pantomime
particularly enthralled the prisons’ 40 odd children, who are allowed to stay with their
mother’s in jail until the age of five.
The ecumenical experiment was the idea of Kiran Bedi, the
director general of prisons in Delhi, who has won international awards in recognition of her work
at the jail. A once bleak, brutal and corrupt institution is now regarded as a model for the rest
of India, despite the overcrowding and lack of funds. ‘Christ does not belong only to
Christians’, she said ‘There is no better crime prevention message than “love thy
neighbour”. A person who teaches non-violence belongs to all humanity.’ |
Iftar in
Tihar Jail
( 14 March 1994)
New Delhi, March 13 (HTC)
It was Iftar with a difference. Like the usual Iftar, there were many men,
old and young, donning prayer caps. They sat in neat rows and prayed. Dates and sherbets were then
served.
Friends embraced, congrat- ulated, shook hands and looked
happy in the colourfully lit courtyard of Jail No. 3.
This was an Iftar of prisoners in Tihar Jail.
More than 500 of them took part in the celebrations
behind the bars. The function was attended by Minister for Prisons Harcharan Singh Balli and
senior Tihar Jail officials. |
Unfurling of National Flag on 15 August 1993
at Tihar Jail (Independence Day of India)
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