In their contribution to the “Pluriverse of Peace” series, Annie Joseph and Michele Lobo (in collaboration with Subodh Kerkar) highlight various forms of everyday activism that create a pluriverse by connecting diverse human and nonhuman worlds. They focus on fearless women, youth, and artists in India who contribute to energizing thought and action to build and envision alternative worlds. These worlds, despite their differences, are intertwined through the everyday practices of speaking out, standing together, and walking together amid the ongoing wars against women, colonized peoples, and the planet.
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“War distracts the world from fascism and genocide. How can there be a peace movement when most people in India are engaged in a daily battle for food, water, shelter, and dignity?” Award-winning novelist and political activist Arundhati Roy draws attention to this daily struggle for survival and dignity in India and many other parts of the world at the turn of the twenty-first century that continues today. In these places, the lethal grip of violence leads to a ‘state of permanent war’ that denies dignity, extinguishes lives, and produces ‘wasted’ and ‘exhausted’ environments.
Roy invites us to tell different stories that ‘lay siege’ to the many heads of empire by mocking, shaming, and starving it of oxygen. In this intervention, we highlight everyday struggles for nyaya (justice) and shanti (peace) in pluriversal worlds that emerge from India amid gender violence, religious violence, racial violence, fascism, settler colonialism, capitalism, ecocide, and genocide.
As relatively privileged people living and working in India and Australia, we are familiar with these struggles through our social work, activism, research, art, and everyday encounters in cities where poverty, inequality, prejudice, discrimination, exploitation, abuse, and even death are determined by the intersection of place, gender, economic class, caste, Indigeneity, race, phenotype, and religious identity.
‘Stop the War on Women’
We were shocked by the brutal rape and murder of a female resident doctor who was on night duty at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, India. This case starkly reminded us that dehumanization and death are the price women pay in their struggle for justice and peace. Unsurprisingly, women from different cultural backgrounds in Indian cities refused to be silenced and joined the fight. Carrying banners that read, ‘Stop the War on Women’ and ‘Believe in Solidarity, Justice, Action, Change!,’ they marched through the city streets.
In public spaces in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan, as well as online, the Indian diaspora led this intergenerational, polyphonic chorus under the banner of Global Protest, demanding justice for Abhaya (the Bengali word for ‘fearless’) using the hashtags #JusticeforRGKar and #BiswaJureUthecheJhor, which means ‘there is a storm across the globe demanding justice.’
Young women and girls, including those from diverse educational institutions (such as religious minority institutions), emerged as active agents in resisting power, challenging non-negotiable identity boundaries. As two Christian women from the minority group in Kolkata, we – Annie Joseph, founder of Ankur Kala, an Indian non-governmental organization, and Michele Lobo, an Australian cultural geographer –, are strengthened by the struggle for gender justice and peace, which reinforces the ethical principle of shared responsibility and the power of solidarity.
First, we will introduce Ankur Kala’s daily performances of sacred activism, through which our collaboration unfolds. Here, we will share the story of Rosie, an orphan who struggled to find food, shelter, and dignity. Finally, we will trace this everyday activism back to a performance installation called “Oceanic Prayer,” which took place on the beaches of Goa, a state in western India, along the Arabian Sea. Led by Subodh Kerkar, the artist and founder of the Museum of Goa, the prayer is for world peace and an end to all wars, including the Gaza War and Gaza genocide. The hashtags on his Instagram page are #OceanicPrayer, #GoaUniversity, #EndGazaWar, #GazaGenocide, #EndAllWars, and #WorldPeace. Amid anti-war protests and the struggle for peace in Palestine, the installation expresses gratitude and love for the ocean, which nourishes life on our planet. After returning from a global family reunion at Morjim Beach in North Goa during an exceptionally warm Indian winter in January 2025, I, Michele, was affected by photographs of the performance posted on Instagram. I began to think of channels of peace.
The story of Rosie: From young widow to social activist
Ankur Kala (AK) is a nonprofit organization located in Kolkata, a city in eastern India on the Bay of Bengal, that empowers women and families to meet their daily survival needs amid disadvantage, dispossession, domestic abuse, and gender violence. AK respects universal spirituality and embraces all human beings as part of the larger human family. We hear from Rosie, a woman who was born and lived on the city streets and spent time in a Christian orphanage and a city slum. Rosie is a young Muslim woman with basic Hindi language skills who was forced to marry an older man who could provide food and shelter. However, Rosie’s husband died soon after the marriage, leaving her a lonely and helpless young widow. Rosie married again. This time, she had access to basic necessities, such as food and shelter, in a city slum.
However, her dignity as a woman was undermined by daily domestic abuse and violence. There was little peace in the early years of Rosie’s second marriage, but she never left her husband because doing so would bring public shame. However, Rosie’s life was suddenly shattered when her husband abandoned her, knowing she was pregnant. As a single mother-to-be, it was difficult to provide for herself and her baby with limited food, unstable housing, and no income. A neighbor who empathized with Rosie asked her to contact Ankur Kala, a nonprofit organization that works to uplift the most disadvantaged women. Ankur Kala supported Rosie during her pregnancy by providing her with food, medicine, and a place to stay in Kolkata. The baby was delivered in a hospital with Ankur Kala’s assistance. The name Ankur Kala means ‘sowing seeds of hope.’ AK provided Rosie with care and a soft loan so she could rent a house in a slum in Kolkata, which was difficult because she was a Muslim minority living in a patriarchal society. Rosie was happy to finally live in a safe and peaceful place, and her daughter was cared for at the AK Center’s informal crèche.
Rosie worked hard to improve her oral language skills, learning how to read and write in Hindi. She also developed new cooking skills, which were necessary at the college canteen where she worked. For the first time, Rosie earned an income and opened a bank account with AK’s help. Recognizing Rosie’s eagerness to improve her skills and her motivation, AK selected her to attend professional training courses to learn how to make processed foods such as jam, pickles, and fruit drinks that were sold widely in the city.
Within a few years, Rosie took on a leadership role in running the college canteen alongside two other women. They sold snacks to students, tallied the day’s accounts, and kept a record of total sales. This information was communicated daily to the NGO’s accounts department. Rosie’s income increased, enabling her to send her daughter to a school with a good learning environment.
Over time, Rosie grew in confidence and began interacting with women from different community groups. She participated in meetings and exhibitions in Kolkata and smaller towns in West Bengal. Rosie nicknamed the successful food processing department at Ankur Kala the JSP (Jam, Squash, Pickle Department), and it continues to flourish through the skilled work of women. It is well known in Kolkata. Rosie continues to volunteer at Ankur Kala. Her experience with gender violence has inspired her to support women facing sexual abuse. She currently trains women at an organization that empowers sex workers and their children. Rosie’s daughter, Mary, is married and has a small family. She earns a living as a bridal beautician. Rosie’s grandson regularly visits Ankur Kala and participates in a children’s program focusing on value education.
Oceanic prayer for peace
What are other ways to be in solidarity? I, Michele, became aware of the “Oceanic Prayer” when I returned to Melbourne in February 2025. I continued my research focusing on decolonizing ocean spaces. The Instagram pages I visited included an invitation as well as images and videos, often accompanied by melodic yet jarring music that spread a strong message of peace. After watching them several times, I contacted the artist, Subodh Kerkar.
The “Oceanic Prayer,” led by Kerkar and supported by Goa University, was an open invitation for 100 participants over the age of 16 to assemble and walk three kilometers barefoot along Varca Beach in Goa. Participants were asked to wear white shorts and a T-shirt under a long gown and were provided transportation by Goa University. As a token of appreciation, participants would receive a photograph and a video of the performance installation. The event took place on January 18, 2025, while I was spending time with my 92-year-old mother in Goa. However, I missed seeing the invitation posted on digital platforms due to intermittent Wi-Fi. I was more aware of the cosmic and spiritual event: the Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest religious gathering of Hindus, which unfolded along the banks of the Ganges River in Prayagraj, a holy site in northern India.
Subodh writes, “The ocean and the sun sustain life on Earth. The sun provides the energy that makes plants grow and enables plankton in the ocean to produce half of the oxygen necessary for breathing. The world’s oceans have no borders. They flow into each other, highlighting the idea of one world and one humanity. My installation, ‘Oceanic Prayer,’ is an expression of gratitude to the ocean.” Participants held cutouts of doves, a symbol of peace made famous by Picasso. They prayed for peace and an end to all wars on this planet. In a world plagued by so much conflict and violence, it is crucial that more people promote the idea of one humanity and love. This installation would not have been possible without the voluntary participation of over 53 people.
Participants dressed in blue and white gowns performed a bodily prayer for peace along the shoreline, leaving traces on the wet sand. They walked parallel to the shoreline, sometimes following the curvature of the gentle waves produced by the breaking waves. At other times, the bodies move in spirals or circles, and the warm water of the Arabian Sea touches their feet. This multisensory, silent performance of peace is captured by drone photographs that provide an aerial view of the land, sea, and sky. The embodied prayer on the beach forms a spiral around the sun, which is symbolized by bright yellow and orange marigold flowers.
Focusing on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian poet and activist Mohammed El-Kurd says that artists can “raise awareness globally and fuel the masses locally… Gaza cannot fight empire on its own.” He adds that it is not enough to be an “impotent spectator” in places with “perfect victims” and “bruised geographies.” With fearlessness, we struggle on for shanti and nyaya.
Editor’s note: The authors of this article would like to thank Anuradha Chatterji, Sukanya Dasgupta, and Souvik Chakraborty.