peace education and multiculturalism

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PEACE EDUCATION AND MULTICULTURALISM:

THE INDIAN STORY

Dr.A.J.Thomas, Assistant Professor, Benghazi University,

Ajdabiya Branch, Ajdabiya, Libya.

Introduction

I am coming from post-war Libya. I was in that country for two and a half years, till the end of

February 2011, during the first two weeks of the revolution when anti-aircraft guns and bombs

were directed at people who were protesting peacefully. Soon the revolution turned into an

armed struggle. Then I was evacuated to India. I returned to Libya on January 6 this year, to a

society in the throes of their first ever experiment with democracy. They are finding it difficult

to understand terms like peaceful dialogue, discussion, consensus, respect for the

opposition etc.the basics of democratic exercises, founded on the bedrock of peace.

What struck me immediately on my return to Libya was the prevailing gun-culture. When I had

left a year ago, they were a peaceful, restrained people; but now they had guns, at least one for

a family. From the day I arrived, to the day I left to attend this conference, I used to hear

automatic guns firing throughout the night and several times during the day, with the deep

rumble of an RPG exploding in between. No, they are not fighting each other. I eventually

unravelled the mystery partly-- they were fascinated by this plaything which they hadcaptured from Gaddafis arsenals throughout the country. Guns symbolize their newfound

freedomwhatever that may mean to them. And they are merely enjoying themselves, firing

it!

Violence and Children


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The processions and rallies of the Libyans all include children. During the early days of the

revolution, children were seen in the forefront of rallies. Recently, for the rally celebrating the

first anniversary of the revolution on February 17, there were children of all ages. I shot this

photo of a child perched atop an anti-aircraft gun, hoisted up there by the father!


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The little boy of my colleague says a hate-word when he sees Gaddafis photo on TV. A year

ago, this was a name they were forbidden even to utter. Now Gaddafis name is the butt of

every hateful joke. All over the walls and public places there are Gaddafi cartoons as graffiti,

portraying him as an object of hatred. Children are the most enthusiastic in poking fun at him.

They really dont know who he is or what their elders suffered under him. For them, he is


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merely the bad man whom they learned to hate, because they know that they lost fathers,

brothers, uncles and even grandfathers quite recently on account of him.

This may be the case in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, Bahrainevery country where people

lost their lives owing to the struggle against oppression. Children, their faces daubed in the

colours of the opposition stare at TV cameras in almost all the opposition rallies in these places.

There is an interesting aside to the narrative of the Arab Spring. In Tunisia and Egypt, where

some kind of civil societies existed, the revolution was peaceful, and was conducted on the

basis of non-violent, passive resistance preached and practiced by Gandhi and Martin Luther

King. In one instance, President Obama did mention Gandhi when he praised the millions of

peaceful protesters in Cairos Tahrir Square.

However, in Libya where a civil society was non-existent and an oppressive dictator had

suppressed every mode of popular expression for forty-two years, and finally tried to crush the

protests by using unheard of force, the people responded in kindby overrunning military

arsenals, capturing weapons and fighting back. The culture of violence began to thrive within a

short time in an atmosphere where peace was an unheard of word in the domain of public

discourse. However, in Egypt and Tunisia where intellectuals and media were allowed some

kind of freedom, people had inculcated the value of peace sufficiently well.

There are of course other places where protracted conflict has imprinted images of violence and

hatred in the impressionable minds of children. In Sri Lanka, the Tamil children would have

hated the Sinhalas as vehemently as the Sinhala children would have hated Veluppillai

Prabhakaran. When Prabhakaran was killed, hundreds of thousands of children in the Indian

state of Tamil Nadu where the Indian community of Tamilians live, would have hated the

Sinhalas with the same vehemence.

In the first world, the object of hatred for children maybe a figure of power or authority, or the

other who excel in everything, seemingly pushing one down, or has appropriated ones girl-

friendbut the outcome as we have seen in scores of school shooting incidents in the US and

European countries, is horrendous. In these countries, the gun is a plaything for the children,

beginning with a toy gun; so is the case in India or many other societies, of course. As we

know, in the US, any attempt to prohibit the proliferation of the gun in private hands is shot

down by legislators at the State and Federal levels, simply because it is an intensely unpopularmove. In other words, people consider it their personal freedom to carry a gun. And in most

homes, children find access to their fathers guns. As has come out in most of the shooting

incidents, the youngster had stolen his fathers gun.

This has to be seen alongside the national policy of the US and many industrialized nations to

promote big business, or the production and export of armsfor military, militia and

individual use by people mostly in the third world, wracked by public violence of all kinds,

beginning with the revolutionaries, and ending with terror outfits. As is on record, several

industrialized nations overtly and covertly turn their aggression towards weaker and more

insecure societies, to establish their powerbases, to use them as pawns in their balancing of


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global power and also blatantly to create market for their arms-sales! All the individuals

involved in such activities would certainly have, or would have had, growing up children.

Child soldiers in several failed African states torn in ethnic and sectarian strife are a big

question mark before world conscience. I am not forgetting the child soldiers the LTTE used

during the protracted Tamil-Sinhala conflict in Sri Lanka. Or, the children that receive basic

martial arts training and the use of the trident by the right-wing Indian fundamentalists.

Popular culture is replete with hyperbolic heroes who capture the imagination of children.

Whether it is Tarzan, or Phantom, or Mandrake of the older generations, Spiderman, Superman

or Batman of the younger generations, or the several such heroes of the 21st century, it is their

spree of violence and unabashed display of physical power that attract the children.

In India, weve had Shaktiman, imitating Superman. We have also somehow turned our great

heroes of mythology --who are to be remembered for their rare virtues chieflyinto modern-

day superheroes! Modelled lately into a western-type superherobe it Hanuman or even Lord

Sri Ramthey capture childrens imagination solely for their physical prowess or dexterity in

using arms! The Ramlila, which celebrates the symbolic victory of good over evil, has been

reduced to a celebration of the hatred for Ravana, ending in the public burning of his effigy.

During the Ramlila season, children sport bows and arrows like Sri Ram and engage in mock-

battles which sometimes result in the loss of eyes of some! The lesson of violence is imprinted

in the minds of the children through this annual festive season.

Childhood needs Peace

The big question emergesis childhood meant for entertaining such violence? Until a childattains the age of eight, its brain-development is highly critical and whatever trauma or scar

sustained in the consciousness at this age will haunt him or her throughout their lives. And that

is exactly the time when they begin the initial phase of their schooling. How to bring up a child

at home and in school, in an environment in which it learns peaceful coexistence with others of

different races, castes, religions, regions, social classes, sexes? How to cool its brain, to induce

the peace and calm it requires to grow gracefully into maturity? These are the questions that we

have to find answers to in the present world scenario marked by cut-throat competition and

ruthless elimination of opponents using all means. We educators are tasked with finding ways

in which children are induced to learn the values of sharing, fairness and acceptance of theother point of view, with calmness and self-assurance.

Peace EducationThe International Scenario.

Though the first International Peace Congress held in Paris in 1849 is the first discernibly

organized beginnings of an international peace movement, the history of structured attempts to

promote peace in a world trembling in a climate of war had started in the latter half of the 19th

century, with the establishment of Universal Peace Congress in 1889 which had a series of

conventions till the year 1939. Earlier on peace was considered the opposite of war; but now,

we understand that it is much more than that. It is the absence of violence, overt or covert. The

term Pacifism, coined by the French peace campaigner Emile Arnaud, was officially adopted


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to identify the movement in 1901, at the 10 th Universal Peace Congress at Glasgow. Around the

same time, Peace Education was given some conceptualization and practical implementation by

personalities like Maria Montessori and John Dewey. It is interesting to note that this happened

at the very dawn of the 20th century, which has seen war and destruction and untold misery to

people on a scale unprecedented in history, and also concerted efforts at peace building,beginning with philosophers-turned social activists like Bertrand Russell risking his all to

promote peace, even going to jail for opposing Second World War. These handful of

individuals, described as pacifists, and nicknamed peaceniks by those who did not

understand why people oppose war at all, formed the nucleus of what was to become one of the

most significant proactive efforts in history to cultivate and promote peace amidst warmongers

of all kinds. Many of them had to face public wrath and even jail, like Russell, sometimes

during the initial phases, in the industrialized western countries. However, the idea of opposing

war as an institution and engaging in efforts to discover peace as the healthy state of legitimate

happiness for human beings began to spread, in a world torn by two World Wars, and

continuing conflicts in almost all parts of the world, especially in the so-called Third World.

The idea of peace being much more than the absence of war, and as the result of justice brought

to all individuals, addressing their real problems which ultimately lead to violence to build up

and erupt within individuals and societies, began to gain ground. Peace as a subject for

institutionalized research and education, found a space finally. Studies in Education for Peace

began to grow and branch out in the West, to begin with.

In the meanwhile, the entire philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi which is known as Gandhism

which comprised exclusion of violence in all forms, purification of ones self through strict

self-discipline in thought, word and deed, and offering resistance to unjust governmental

actions through non-violent resistance born out of conviction for the prevalence of just values,

contained in the catchword Satyagraha or grasping of truth, had been growing in India.

Gandhi had infused the struggle for Independence from British colonial rule with this spirit

right from the time he landed at Bombay port in 1915, after a twenty year stint in South Africa

where he had successfully resisted non-violently (thus perfecting his techniques, which can be

read about in his autobiography,My Experiments with Truth) the apartheid of the whites,

especially against Indians and other coloured immigrants. He was one of the earliest thinkers

who asserted that peace is not the absence of war, but the prevalence of justice for all, in an

atmosphere of brotherhood of mankind.

In the West, peace research was progressing in the post-World War II scenario. Beginning with

the1960s, under the initiatives of Johan Galtung (who analysed the structure of violence to

understand the space for peace), John Paul Lederach, Lisa Schirch, Betty Reardon and others

who developed the concept of Peacebuilding, concrete steps were being adopted to introduce

peace as a subject for study. Education was identified as a field of operation where peace was

introduced and developed as an academic subject like any other, and it eventually created an

atmosphere for a just peace. Schools were identified as the most suitable institutions for such

an education. Teachers were found to be the most reliable agents for building peace culture

among children. The year 1963 was critical in Peace Education, with the idea of peace gainingfirm ground with Pope John the XXIIIs encyclical letterPacem in Terris (Peace in the World),


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promulgated throughout the world among the millions of practicing Catholics, and the iconic

US President John F.Kennedys famous address at the American University, titled, Towards a

Strategy of Peace, in which he announced the first-ever Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. (Singh,

2009)

Next, we see a series of landmark resolutions adopted by the United Nations, and programmes

launched by its bodies like the UNESCO. UN Resolution 44/25, Convention on the Rights of

the Child(November 1989), Culture of Peace Program, 1993, UN Resolution

53/25:International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the

World 2001-2010(1998) and Resolution 53/343(A) Declaration on a Culture of

Peace(October 1999) are very important in the annals of peace campaign and peace education.

Other international initiatives like the Hague Appeal of 1999 which called for a campaign to

include peace and human rights education in all educational institutions, and The World

Education Forum that met at Dakar in 2000 adopting the Dakar Framework for Action, are to

be specially noted.

Meanwhile, in India, notable personalities, like the internationally renowned education

scientist, Professor Krishna Kumar, had initiated effective action in the area of Peace Education

at the turn of this century. We will look in detail later in this presentation, at the National

Curriculum Framework 2005 in which Peace Education was given a pride of place by him.

Multiculturalism

The detailed knowledge of cultures besides ones own, so as to be aware of and be appreciative of

different cultures and to be empowered by the knowledge of diversity, constitutes the core of

multicultural education. It is a subject in school curriculum in the West and in some other societies

where ethnic tensions have caused social rupture and conflict resolution is in progress. The

UNESCO has adopted it and is promoting it in a sustained way.

Multiculturalism is a western construct as I see it in the Indian contextmore precisely an

American one. Because, that nation is made up of immigrants from all parts of the globe, and

one feels the need to find a definition for those people living together as one community. I

remember listening to the American scholar Stephen Greenblatt in Sahitya Akademi, New

Delhi in the year 2000, when he was delivering a lecture about the notion of nationalism. He

tried to prove that nationalism is an outdated concept in the context of people of many

nationalities forming into a single entity in the melting pot of American society. But he

stepped into unfamiliar territory when he seemed to suggest through his labyrinthine arguments

that the sub-nationalities that exist in the Indian states are also to be done away with and a

strong, central, Indian nationality was to be moulded.

The unity in diversity and the federal, secular character of the Indian civil society cannot be

understood if we look at it through such notions of multiculturalism. Because, it naturally

occurs in Indiait has been so from the age of the great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata,

which speak of the different racial and cultural groups that were accommodated in society at all

levelsfrom the commons to the royal court. For example, Gandhari, Dhritarashtras wife, wasfrom Gandhara, or modern-day Kandahar in Afghanistan, and was considered an outsider, but


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was accepted as the kings wife, along with her relatives (of which, Shakuni, her brother, was

the root cause of all the rivalry between the cousins that precipitated into a fratricidal war).

There are several other ethnic groups mentioned in the epics, and those who came in at a later

time in historyYavanas, or Greeks and Parthians or Persians, for example.

The Jews who immigrated in the 7th century BCE, the Christians who immigrated in the early

centuries of the Christian Era, the later Persian immigrants bringing in Zoroastrianism into

India around 1200 years agoall settled down in India and flourished. The Muslim merchants

who brought Islam to the southern shores and were accepted in peace and brotherhood, and

integrated into the respective societies of the native kingdoms, and the Muslim invaders who

came in to the north-western parts of the country about a1000 years ago and established their

power-bases, and eventually took over the governance of great chunks of the sub-continent

both settled down and formed part of the mainstream.

Likewise, the adherents of various schisms and offshoots emanating from the mainstream

Vedic and Agamic religions--the Buddhists and Jains two millennia ago, and the Sikhs much

later in the 16th century, and the myriad sects and groups that are contained within faith-systems

clubbed together and loosely termed as Hinduism, --live together in this vast country in a

largely harmonious atmosphere, in spite of serious differences in their basic beliefs.

Then the different sub-nationalities of India, based on the regional cultures of the 24 national

languages, an equal or more number of lesser-circulated languages and hundreds of mother-

tongues. In an Indian metropolis like Mumbai or Delhi, you will find people from all corners of

the countrybut all living in their own spaces, in active interaction with others. As the Editor

ofIndian Literature, the bimonthly journal of Sahitya Akademi (The National Academy ofLetters, India), which publishes literary works in English translation from all the 24 national

languages and the less circulated languages, mother tongues and tribal languages of India, I

have had first-hand experience, over the last fifteen years, of the kind of multiculturalism we

have in India.

The children of these different sub-nationals study in the same schools, share the values of the

different cultures, and grow up. I am from Kerala, the southern-most State of India. I moved to

Delhi when my daughter was very young. After her Kindergarten in Kerala, she began her

schooling in Delhi, and she has friends and classmates from all parts of India. This is quite

different from the multiculturalism the British Prime Minister David Cameron looked downupon, and spoke condescendingly about, soon after he was elected. Or, the kind Australia has

nurtured, coming to grips with the reality of the growing immigrant population, and becoming

aware of the importance of correcting the mistakes of their past vis a vis the aboriginals and

some immigrant groups. In both cases, the sub-text of the dominant white mainstream is

present, whereas in India, the hegemony lies elsewheremostly invisibly in caste, visibly in

class, region and religion.

Language, caste, class, regional, religious and communal chauvinism exist in Indian society;

and children are the first to pick up racial, caste, class, communal or region-based hate

language. The gaps among the rich and the privileged, the burgeoning middle-classes, and the

vast majority of the less privileged grow ever-widening; a child maybe incapable of grasping


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the dynamics of segregation and discrimination at action resulting from all these, at a tender

age. All he or she may understand is that he/she is not welcome, or is not appreciated for some

vague reason, by classmates, or even by certain teachers. They grow up in vague hatred and

unfocused rebellion, as disturbed personalities, prone to opt for violence as the outlet for their

inner hate.

Apart from this, is the hate-campaign unleashed by the majority community on minority

communities in States like Gujarat and Orissa, resulting ultimately in mindless violence

allegedly with the connivance of the state machinery at least in one instance, and the death of

thousands of innocent people. Children were reportedly subjected to text-book based anti-

Muslim brainwashing in Gujarat.

To be urgently addressed, is the question of children who come from poor families where

parents are not aware of the importance of values to be inculcated in the children because of the

dire straits they find themselves in; on the other hand, children from the affluent families where

the parents have no time for the children in their mad rush for material gains and pleasures of

high society grow up equally bereft of values. The children of parents of both classes, who

quarrel and fight constantly for various reasons, are left to themselves to learn early lessons of

violence and vice.

Value education to all children is the only answer here. Peace is the overriding value and

virtue, around which all else fall in place.

Peace Education in India: The School Curriculum Framework 2005, prepared and

implemented by NCERT.

This is the background against which Peace Education was introduced on a national basis in the

country in the School Curriculum Framework, in 2005, under the initiative of Professor

Krishna Kumar, who was Director of the National Council for Educational Research and

Training (NCERT, the premier education research institution of India). But the story had begun

much earlier, when a charismatic literary editor, Ms. Mini Krishnan, conceptualized a series of

text-books on Value Education, and the Indian arm of an internationally renowned publishing

house where she is employedthe Oxford University Press-India-- accepted the challenge of

developing and publishing the series under their aegis with Mini spearheading the action,

completing the project by November 2004. The series embraces the Indian brand of

multiculturalism naturally and has Living in Harmony as its motto. Thus, the emergence of

the series Living in Harmony had preceded Professor Krishna Kumars announcement. The

significant point about the series is that for once a publisher was ahead of formal policy. The

later NCERT adopted it, arranged its translation into 24 Indian languages and reached it to

schoolchildren all over India. Meant for lower and upper primary levels, this series of text

books have been prepared by authors from all religions and communities. Further, the series

has been supported by Teachers Manuals.


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After 14 printings and three editions, the series has influenced millions of children. It is simply

the story of a good work well done passing on to the hands of an excellent administrator and

visionary educationist.

LIVING IN HARMONYTHE SERIES: A CASE STUDY

(Visualsphotos of authors, the wheel of values, sample cover, etc)

Peace Making Strategies and Education for Peace Training.

The Living in Harmony The project, the processes and experience

(This document has been created by Maya Gaitonde, for OUP.)

I. We live in a world of transition, a time of rapid global change, a time pregnant with hope of a

just, peaceful and prosperous global community but also riddled with chaos, disruption and

conflict as humanity struggles to adjust to the imperatives of building such a society.

Our vision of a peaceful society cannot be achieved without a profound transformation in the

character of our people and in the nature of their relationships with each other.

We must learn to live in harmony.

There is today an increasing recognition that education has a fundamental role to play in the

creation of this new individual and new society. Academic development must be

complemented by, indeed must derive from the infusion of values in education.

Boards of Education have addressed this crucial area in Education and evolved lists of values

that need to be inculcated in our students and have recommended various strategies to do so.

II. 3 essential inputs

a. Appropriate Teaching Material .

To bring out the inner beings of children, develop their potential and nurture them into

becoming integrated human beings in which there is the harmony of

3HV head+heart+ hand = EHV (Education on Human Values). To sensitize students to the need for harmony and mutual respect between persons,

religions and communities which represent the thematic architecture of LIH.

Guided by the proven fact that the inner transformation of individuals is a pre-condition

for genuine and enduring social change, Living in Harmony contains stories from

history, religions, literature and real life events stories that reflect the religious, ethical

and cultural plurality of India.

b. Equipping the teacher with necessary support.


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Creative and thought-provoking activities aimed at converting living/earning into a

practical and joyful activity and internalizing values in order to encourage children to

relate these insights to their real life situations.

Firm conviction and fervent hope that teachers would do their best in enabling students

and in so doing discover a new joy and excitement in their vocation through theteaching methodologies /lesson plans. Value-based games, question banks, additional

stories and teachers notes.

Enabling teachers to focus on a positive psycho-social interaction with children.

c. Ensuring the whole-hearted participation of parents.

The need for a proactive participation of parents in the moral formation of their children it

is eventually the only area where parents will always continue to pay a vital role in the lives

of their children given the quantity and variety of growing syllabi and constraints of time

and contact with children growing involvement of children in entertainment, information

and technology through media and cyberspace.

Living in Harmony provides the foundation for a healthy home, society and community.

It focuses towards an understanding by parents that the most precious gift they can ever

give children is their time.

III. Goals of Indian Education

Removal of prejudices.

Installing of peace in the country where violence is becoming increasingly common.

An understanding for children of the complexity and ambiguity of Indias history,diversity of our religious and cultural tradition.

Cross-community education programmes in schools which must prepare children to

address the challenges of conflict and reconciliation in the adult world.

Need to share experiences from different countries and faiths and cultures from within

too and arrive at ethical behaviour that helps to forge creative links between differences

in children within the country.

Help children explore

- Self-esteem and intra personal feelings.

- Inter-personal and inter-community relationships.- Understanding human, cultural and religious differences.

- And, creatively express their feelings/opinions about any values.

IV. Goals of the LIH

To respect the sacredness of all creation.

To link the personal and local with the global.

To promote a temperament that speaks out against human rights violation, intolerance

and violence.

To work for justice, reconciliation and healing. To recognize the inter-relationship between peace, justice and sustainable development.


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To respect human dignity and diversity.

To promote the ability to see the other in me, both individually and collectively.

To foster values of love, respect and forgiveness.

To help children recognize that without peace, progress is not possible.

V. Important life skills to be taught for the individual child

Skills for life or mere living?

Emotional skills: Managing feelings and emotions, communication skills and empathy and

ability of conflict resolution. It is common knowledge that a happy child grows into a

confident, stable and generous adult capable of concern for others. Inculcating the intrinsic

value of harmonious and peaceful co-existence in a growing child is imperative for a country

like India with its rich heritage and variegated culture. This is indispensable because what is

absorbed consciously and subconsciously in childhood is what shapes the character and

personality.

Thinking skills: Self-awareness and problem-solving, dealing with stress and practical

application of ones own values in real life. In our conflict-ridden world, an educational

movement to promote a culture of peace personal, local, social and national is now widely

recognized as the only way forward. Unwillingness to share and a rising trend of bitter

competition in every sphere of life have resulted in the systematic erosion of the spirit of

tolerance in all communities and age-groups. How, as caretakers, are we going to teach future

generations to learn to give and to live together?

Social skills: Inter-personal relationships. Decision-making and creative thinking.Our primary duty as parents and educators of the future generations is to inculcate in them the

ethical and moral principles that can serve as building blocks in the task of living in harmony

with people of diverse faiths and ethnicity. Education should be a tool not just for employment

but for empowerment. It must build not merely skills but character and help every child to

develop an inner core of peace, a profound respect for Nature, and a belief in truth and justice.

Only such an approach can lead to nation-building.

VI. Put in the following:-

Me and others.

Learning to work with others.

Peace is what I give.

Qualities I need for Happiness.

Truth, the core of my being.

Improving Myself.

Controlling Myself.

VII. Reinforcing Values through LIH for a better India

Values are transmitted from adults to children; they are learnt not only from teaching but

directly from an individuals life-experiences which involves various influences school,

friends, TV, religion, music, books, culture.


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1. Being different will address issues like different colour/complexion, caste, community, faith,

race, being mentally or physically challenged; the stories and activities will have a multi-faith

approach. For example, in a lesson, a proverb from one faith, and a story from another will be

placed; it will include folk tales and true stories.

2. Being with God and Unity of Faith will focus on activities like making trips to places of

worship of different faiths, celebrating festivals of all faiths in the classroom, singing prayers

from all faiths, encouraging children to share various craft and art associated with different

faiths and focusing on traditions of religious unity in our country rather than conflict. Special

focus is given towards casting out the injustice of caste in our country.

3. Peace and Ahimsa The messages of India focus on learning to give, understanding, sharing

and comforting others, sympathy and non-violent ways of reacting to various kinds of violence.

4. Love of Nature focuses on developing and understanding of animals and plants, conserving

water and other gifts of nature knowing about the wisdom of whole traditions and new

scientific methods to care for the living, and protecting our ecosystem.

5. Love for Country focuses on love and respect for national symbols, preserving the wealth

of our country, learning about religious scriptures, appreciating the richness of Indian crafts and

traditions, concern about wildlife. Focus on the lives of the different kinds of people in India is

the most important of all these.

VIII. What we can do

The group of authors who got together to work on this series came from a multi-religious

background each one steeped in their own religious faith but with a secular outlook that they

derived from their own religious faith. Working together was a harmonious and deeplyfulfilling process with sharing, comradeship, open discussion and respectful debate and an

eagerness to learn from each other.

The responsibility of taking peace and harmony forward in the world lies with faith-based

organizations all of whom can work in the following manner:-

Faith-based NGOs have an important role to play in dialogue and evolving partnerships

by identifying areas of strength and opportunity and areas of challenge/concern to help

enhance the nature of dialogue. Neither majority nor minority can ignore this.

Faith-based Networks with a large membership can reach out to all their members to

look at important issues of deeper social determinants equity, rights, gender.

Faith-based delivery services like infrastructure institutions, schools, clinics/hospitals

that are of high quality, high integrity and service-oriented institutions which focus on

human values.

With increasing religious fundamentalist trends in all major religious groups Hindu, Christian

and Islamic --the role of building peace and harmony has become a very important

developmental challenge especially at the community level. We all need to find good

opportunities for joining hands and working together promoting collaboration and collectivity

rather than competition.

Relook at the efficacy of cultural and social norms that are closely linked to religions values,

which often result in barriers or obstacles in programs and partnerships and spread positive


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secularism which exists in all religious groups through dialogue and collective planning

services.

Varying interpretations of religion, religiosity and spirituality are today creating gaps and the

most challenging are the stereotype images that each group builds up about the other, which

can only be overcome by dialogue and collective action through community processes thatprevent religion from becoming a dividing force rather than a uniting one.

Understanding living in harmony

ME & OTHERS

I-1 Let's be friends - To help children understand friendship and to learn about being friends.

II -1 Love your family - To learn about caring for members of our families.

III-4 Being a good neighbour - To learn that everyone we meet is like our neighbour and we must help

them.

IV-4 Living together - To learn that we need to live together in harmony with others.

V-1 Happy as I am - To help children understand how to be content with what they have .

VI-7 Expanding the circle- To learn to extend one's self in service to a large group of people.

VII-1 The meaning of friendship - To learn about the qualities of true friends and the effect they can have

on us.

VIII- 2 Sharing with others- To learn that sharing is essential in today's complex and inter-connected world

and that sharing benefits everyone.

LEARNING TO WORK WITH OTHERS

I-2 Let's do things together- To learn that when we all work together we can achieve great things and

all of us can play a part no matter how small it is.

II-2 Being helpful - To learn that we must help those who need it even if they do not ask for help.

III-3 Being courteous - To learn how to be courteous by using polite language and by our actions.

IV-3 The gift of peace Keeping ones promise.

V-12 India home to all religions - To learn that all religions coexist peacefully in India.

VI-4 You can't do it alone - To learn about teamwork and co-operation.

VII-6 Fairness in judging - To learn to be fair by considering all the facts before we make a judgement.

VIII- 3 Equality - To learn that even though we are different, we have all been created equal and that

everyone deserves equal treatment, rights and opportunities.

PEACE IS WHAT I GIVE


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TRUTH, THE CORE OF MY BEING

I- 4 Let's tell the truth - To learn that telling the truth helps people believe us and it makes us and other

people happy.

II-4 Treating everyone fairly - To learn to be fair in our dealings with others.

III- 1 Let's be honest-To learn that honesty means to tell the truth and not cheat even when it is difficult to

do so.

IV-5 Caring for others - To learn to care for others.

V-5 The joy of learning - To create in the children an attitude of learning and a spirit of enquiry about

everything that surrounds them.

VI-2 Honesty is important - To learn that honesty is needed for people to trust each other and for society

to advance and that honesty brings its own rewards in the form of a clear conscience.

VII-4 Keeping your place with honour - To learn to overcome the temptations of dishonourable

competition and always play by the rules.

VIII-6 Honesty - To learn that honesty must be applied at every moment of our lives and in all situations.

IMPROVING MYSELF

I- 6 Caring for yourself- To learn about being clean and protecting your health.

II-6 Being brave-To learn to be brave and get over our fears.

III-2 Simplicity-To learn to live simply with fewer things for oneself.

IV-2 Being punctual-To learn that being punctual is important as it affects not only us but others as well.

V-2 Using your time-To learn that when we use our time properly we can do most of the things we want

to do.VI-3 Work and life - To learn the value of hard work for the benefit of all and that work well done

requires timeliness and organization.

VII-5 Win some, lose some - To learn to overcome disappointments and work hard to learn from mistakes.

VIII-4 Empathy- To learn to relate to others with empathy.


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CONTROLLING YOURSELF

I- 7 Learning to obey-To learn about obeying rules and the consequences of disobedience.

II-5 Learning to say sorry-To learn that it is important to say sorry because it takes away the hurt, sadness

and anger.III-5 Doing the right thing-To learn that it is important to do the right thing even though it may be difficult

and requires us to make a difficult choice.

IV-1 Watching yourself-To learn to discipline ourselves.

V-3 Work is important-To learn that all kinds of work are important and we should not shy away from

manual work.

VI-1 Who am I? - To help students to develop a sense of individuality and uniqueness and take responsibility

for their own growth with the help of others.

VII-3 From the heart - To learn to master negative feelings and reinforce positive ones.

VIII-1 Making choices- To learn to give priority to important matters and to good values and to learn to make

wise choices as choices affect our lives and also the lives of other people.

AHIMSA THE MESSAGE OF INDIA

I-11 Hurting you, hurting me-To understand that no matter how angry or hurt we feel, we should not hurt

anyone.

II-12 Ahimsa The message of India-To learn to respond peacefully when we are hurt instead of feeling like

hurting others.

III-12 Ahimsa bringing people together- To learn to become a peace-maker.

IV-12 Ahimsa-To learn to respond peacefully when we are hurt instead of hurting others.

V-11 Ahimsa the message of India-To learn to use words of peace, ahimsa words that do not hurt others.VI-11 Ahimsa the message of India - To help students learn about and exercise self- control when they are

angry.

VII-8 Building bridges - To learn to accept differences of opinion and settle disagreements

VIII-14 Ahimsa - To learn the power of non violent action.


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LOVE NATURE

I- 8 Love Nature - To develop in the children a caring attitude towards Nature and an understanding of how

all living things need each other.

II-7 Love Nature - To learn about caring for animals and plants.

III- 7 Love Nature - To learn about conserving water and other gifts from Nature for the future.

IV-7 Love Nature - To learn about caring for Mother Earth.

V-6 Love Nature - To learn about the importance of protecting Nature.

VI-9 The living Earth - Students learn about the environment in other classes too. The purpose of this lesson

is to emphasize their responsibility in caring for, beautifying and protecting the environment.

VII-10 Earth, our paradise - To learn that we need to combine the wisdom of old traditions and new scientific

methods to care for the living Earth.

VIII-9 In harmony with Nature - To sensitize the students to the importance of protecting the ecosystem, of

avoiding harsh exploitation of Nature and of adopting a lifestyle that treats Nature gently.

BEING WITH GOD

I-12 Being with God - To teach children that God is always with us and He will protect us.

II-10 Being with God - To teach children that God is always with us and He will always help us.

III-10 Being with God - To learn to think about God and to thank Him for His gifts to us.

IV-9 Being with God - To understand that there is only one God and people of different religions call Him by

different names and worship Him in different holy places.

V-8 Being with God - To learn that true devotion to God is in the sincerity of the heart and not in the

outward forms of worship.

VI-12 Where is God - To convey the idea that God is everywhere and He cannot be confined to a specific

thing, time or place

VII-13 We are one -

VIII-12 To understand that faith in God expresses itself not only in prayer and worship but also in how we do

our work and how we lead our lives.


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LOVE YOUR COUNTRY

I-10 To learn to see their country India as their home and all its peoples as their family.

II-8 To learn to show our love and respect for our country by respecting the national flag.

III-8 Our Treasure Chest - To learn to recognize and preserve the plant wealth of our country.IV-11 India, home to all religions - To learn about scriptures of religions existing in India.

V-10 I love India - To take pride in the wildlife heritage of India and learn to protect it.

VI-8 Treasures of our Motherland - Our clay, stone and wood- Students learn about India and its heritage

in their history and geography classes. The purpose of this lesson is to help students appreciate and

develop respect for arts and crafts, craftspersons and creative manual labour.

VII-9 Stories in stone, stories on paper- To learn to appreciate the richness of India's traditions and culture.

VIII-8 Concern for your land - To enable students to understand that India consists of different kinds of

people and that they should be concerned about the welfare of all of them.

BEING DIFFERENTI-9 To understand that we are all different and we should not feel bad about being different from others.

II-9 To understand that we are all different and we must accept these differences.

III-9 To understand that we are all different and we should respect these differences.

IV-8 Working together - To learn that when we co-operate with each other we can work together peacefully

and achieve great things

V-7 To learn to accept and respect differences among people.

VI-10 The garden of life - To learn to appreciate and value differences among people.

VII-11 Lighting lamps, lighting candles - To learn to accept and value the differences among people.

VIII-

10

Cast out caste - To learn not to accept the unjust and artificial divisions that exist among people.

VI-6 The making of a leader - To learn about qualities of leadership and begin developing.

VII-2 Love is life - To learn that love is a powerful force that touches every aspect of our lives and makes it

richer.

VIII-7 Humility - To learn that humility promotes learning and personal growth.

These text books were designed for children of Standards I to VIII. The NCERT has reachedthem to the millions of school children all over India in translation into the 24 national

languages.For Standard I to V simple messages have been designed. For Standards VI, VII andVIII, more sophisticated messages have been prepared.

Here is a sample lesson from one of the textbooks: Cast out Caste, Lesson 11, in the book

meant for students of Standard VII.

The caste system is the curse that has gripped Indian society like a vice for than the last two

millennia. This system discriminates against individuals by virtue of their birth. In this system,

some people are segregated as untouchables. Some of the so-called lower-caste people cannotdrink water from the same well, or eat from the same restaurant as the higher caste ones. Their


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children cannot study in the same school as those of the higher castes. Great souls like Gandhi

have tried to eradicate this evil, and its practice is prohibited by provisions in the Constitution

of India. Yet, in actual practice it is very much present, directly or indirectly. This lesson tries

to sensitise young minds about this evil, and the necessity of its avoidance.

(PDF)

Peace Education: How to Apply it?

Mini Krishnan, a founding member of The Focus Group on Peace Education in India, who

prepared a Paper for presentation at NCERT, New Delhi, on 20 February 2005, the context and

purpose of which is inquiring into the necessity and viability of Peace Education, asks: where

are we and where do we think we should go? Liberalization, privatization and globalization

have turned the whole world into a market- place of jobs and qualifications, a reality which

cannot be wished away. Our very system of testing and certifying education is so stressful it

brings out the worst in both children and concerned adults. It breeds fear, frustration and

aggressions that a sense of failure brings on. Nor is there any comfort in the social

environment. The great safety-net of the Indian family has holes in it especially in urban

contexts. Thanks to the pervasive influence of the media and entertainment created by peddlers

of vulgarity, cynicism and violence, the child of today is schooled in violence.

According to the Focus Group, the main goals of Peace Education are as follows:

(i)The most important goal of peace and value education is character-building. We already know how

to nurture our children in perfect physical health. However, to make their lives meaningful, we must

build their personalities also into healthy ones, paying special attention to their intellectual and moralgrowth, through Peace Education.

(ii)Make it practical. Some may dismiss the Peace Education plan as too idealistic or romantic. Our

answers are: Is our plan too idealistic and romantic to work in our overcrowded classrooms and too

much to expect from our overworked teachers? Some of the answers are already in the collective

psyche. It isnt as if no one has ever worried about these things before. Many thinkers have presented

ideas and suggestions for India, a country which is far from homogenous. Eighty years ago,

Rabindranath Tagore said We are here to build a greater India. Seventy years ago, Maria Montessori

said All education is for Peace. More recently J. Krishnamurthi said The responsibility for building

a peaceful and enlightened society rests with the educator.

(iii) Make it work with existing educational structures: With faith in non-violence shrinking and

children becoming increasingly desensitised to its various forms, it is imperative to reinforce the

foundations of peace. We believe that this can be achieved through a programme that focuses on Peace

Education which expands to include, and go beyond, moral and value education. We cannot ignore or

dismiss older plans that two generations of Indian educators advised for Indian schools but we have to

think beyond them because the world around us has changed. The consumerism and blatant promotion

of the materialistic goals of life are pressures that earlier generations of children did not face(Krishnan,

2005).

Conclusion


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Since teaching the young is one of the greatest symbols of nation-building, a certain degree of

personal and social transformation is possible through education, by educating children about peace. A

concern for all life through the feeling eyes and minds of men and women trained to understand and

manage their feelings, aspirations and personal relationships, is Peace Education in action. (Krishnan,

2005).

Peace Education in a secular democracy is actually citizenship education, as it aims at bringing about

the all-round development of the individual. Surely we cannot keep the citizens in ignorance of the

ideals and values of the Constitution and expect them to abide by them. Students who are heir to a

secular democracy must know and respect the ideals of this code which is central to our national

identity.

The Constitution of India guarantees basic human rights and other freedoms enjoyed in an ideal

democracy anywhere in the world. Making citizens aware of them is the only way of empowering

them, and bringing about human progress. Efforts at this awareness programme will bear fruit in a

meaningful way if we begin with school students. Using education only to empower oneself to securegood jobs and material benefits, is a lopsided policy. Children should be taught about rights, duties and

values of citizenship as envisaged in the Constitution. Add-ons to this can be a course that emphasises

respect for the rule of law, appreciation of different religions, communities, regions and cultures. Peace

Education is the precondition for facilitating the core values of our Constitution.

India is described as a socialist, secular, democratic Republic in its Constitution. However, the number

of people below the poverty line is about 40% of its 1.21 billion population. The wide gap among the

different economic classes, with a few billionaires living life in super-luxury and almost half the

population starving, is really a mockery of any sense of justice. For the children of these poor people,

the Peace Education we are talking about has no meaning. This glaring disparity has to be levelled

somehow and justice brought to them, ensuring their right to life and other basic rights. PeaceEducation can sensitise the children who are better off and mould them into responsible citizens who

are sensitive to the needs of the have-nots.

As I have already explained in the section on multiculturalism, India is a pluralistic society, which

accommodates all the major religions of the world. Unlike many other countries, India does not have a

state religion. All religions and communities are equal, and in fact the minority communities are

assured of some rare privileges. But when translated into practice, discrimination and the fear of the

other, predominate, mostly among the common people of the middle classes, and of rural areas.

Together with this the issues of caste, religion, region, gender(women are discriminated against as a

general rule in traditional society and even among the urban middle classes; in some states it has

triggered even female foeticide on a large scale!) and class arise. Through Peace Education, we canbring about a corrective measure in the attitudes that children develop at home.

Democracy can function effectively only in a society that is educated. Western democracies (some of

which are not so well structured as the Indian one when one looks at the Constitutional provisions),

thrive, while Indian democracy has many problems brought about by citizens who are not aware of

their rights and responsibilities, through lack of education. Therefore, from the primary school level,

(because a large number of children drop out after this level, mainly in rural areas owing to many

reasons), children have to be made aware of their rights and duties as citizens, and the part they have to

play for democracy to function in the country. This part can form an important one in the area of Peace

Education.


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Peace education can have a beneficial side-effect on children. Through the positivity it engenders, the

stress and tension that their academic programmes create can be mitigated. Personal habits that are

taught in childhood become part of our personality; Peace Education given in childhood can make

them loving, sensitive individuals. How are the Indians of the future going to get their peace lessons at

a tender age? In the material aspects of education, we see many students from humble backgrounds

making it to the top with uncommon tenacity. If the same tenacity can be translated into action inPeace Education, many of the social and economic problems India is facing now will slowly fade away

and the nation will gradually attain all-round progress in the place of the present growth-index

orientation of the upwardly mobile. Keeping the peace in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society is far

more important than creating doctors, engineers, IT professionals and managers. Peace Education will

have attained some meaning if it can bring about more appreciation and tolerance for the other in

different groups. Peace Education may not produce class-toppers in this subject. But better human

beings? Of course.

References

Krishnan, Mini. (2005). A Case for Peace Education: Salvation or the Supermarket.

NCERT. (2005).National Curriculum Framework.

Singh, Shweta. (2009). Education for Peace: Kaleidoscopic Musings.Peace Prints:

South Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, Vol. 2, No. 1: Autumn.

Lederach, John Paul. (1995).Preparing for Peace.Syracuse, New York: Syracuse

University Press.

---. (1997).Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided

Societies. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press,).

Schirch, Lisa.(2005). The Little Book of Strategic Peacebuilding.Intercourse,

Pennsylvania: Good Books.

Reardon, Betty. A. (1988).Educating for Global Responsibility: Teacher-designed

Curricula for Peace Education, K-12.New York: Teachers College Press.

---. (1988). Comprehensive Peace Education: Educating for Global Responsibility.

New York: Teachers College Press---. (2003).Education for a Culture of Peace in a Gender Perspective. Paris: UNESCO.

peace education and multiculturalism

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