मध्यस्थ दर्शन सह-अस्तित्ववाद - प्रणेता श्री ए नागराज - अमरकंटक

Selected Research Papers : UGC sponsored NATIONAL SEMINAR On HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS & VALUES IN GLOBAL SOCIETY

K.J. Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce
(NAAC Accredited)
GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR (1959-2009)





UGC sponsored

NATIONAL SEMINAR

On

HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS & VALUES IN GLOBAL SOCIETY


on
10, 11 and12 February 2009


Venue: K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering Auditorium
Vidyavihar, Mumbai – 400 077














Organized by
Department of Sociology
& Jeevan Vidya Study Centre
Somaiya Vidyavihar
in collaboration with
NGO - POPULATION FIRST

PATRONS
Dr. S.K. Somaiya
(Vice-President, Somaiya Vidyavihar)

Smt. Leelaben Kotak
Shri Samir S. Somaiya
(Trustees, Somaiya Vidyavihar)

SEMINAR ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Prof. Sureshbhai Shah
(Hon. Secretary, Somaiya Vidyavihar)

Shri V. Ranganathan
(Hon. Secretary, Somaiya Trust)

Prof. A.P. Pradhan
(Chief Academic Advisor, Somaiya Vidyavihar)

Dr. S.K. Bhavani
(Educational Consultant, Somaiya Vidyavihar)


CHAIRPERSON
Dr. (Smt.) Sudha Vyas
Principal
VICE – CHAIRPERSON
Dr. Deelip Palsapure
Vice-Principal

CONVENOR
Dr. (Smt.) Suguna M. Rao

CO-ORDINATOR
Dr. Surendra Pathak

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Dr. (Smt) Sarala Bijapurkar Smt. Anita Thakkar
Smt. Rohini Fadte Smt. Mrunal Bhatt
Shri. .N.P. Bhinde Shri. P.J. Doshi
Smt. Chandra P. . Smt. Prasanna Suvarna
Shri.Joseph John Smt. Vijaya Ramnath
Smt.. Sumita Ghosh Smt. Sonali Deogirikar
Smt. Pramila Patil Shri Mahesh Dravid
Shri. Narendra Pathak Shri Rajesh K
Kum. R. Kanchan
ABOUT SOMAIYA VIDYAVIYAR

SOMAIYA VIDYAVIYAR, founded in the year 1959 by Padmabhushan (late) Shri Pujya Karmshibhai J. Somaiya is situated in a lush green campus of 60 acres at Vidyavihar and 35 acres at Sion. It is a beehive of 34 educational institutions with 1700 teaching staff and 27000 students and offers education from K.G. to P.G. and even Ph.D. in diverse streams – Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce, Science, Medicine, Engineering and Management.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE

K.J. Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce was the first institution to be set up in the year 1959 with the vision “Education for All”. Our mission is to reach the student community through co-curricular activities with special focus on inter-disciplinary Seminars, Conferences and Workshops. The college offers courses for U.G., P.G. and Ph.D in Arts, Commerce and Management. There are 52 teaching staff in Degree College among whom 20 are P.G. recognized teachers and 5 are Ph.D guides. The college also has a Gandhian Studies Centre and a spacious, well-equipped, computerized library. The NCC unit of this college has won the Vice-Chancellor’s Banner for 3 consecutive years. Value-Education forms an integral part of the college curriculum which helps in moulding the students to become socially responsible citizens.


About Jeevan Vidya Study Center
Somaiya Vidyavihar

It was inaugurated on Aug 13, 2007, by Dr. S.K. Somaiya in the presence of Pujya A. Nagraj ji of Amarkantak who is the propounder of ‘Madhyastha Darshan : Sah-astitva-vad. Jeevan Vidya is a unique effort in promoting positive values through our education system. It is concerned with analyzing and solving the basic causes of major problems of social disintegration, ecological imbalances, violence, corruption, exploitation, domination, terrorism and war. In the words of former President of India, Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, ‘I understand Jeevan Vidya is a teachable human value based skill that can address inherent conflicts within the mind of the individual, within families, in organizations and in public life’. Dr. Surendra Pathak is the director of this JV Study centre.

THEME OF THE SEMINAR

The 20th century has witnessed spectacular scientific, technological, social and political changes all over the world. However, we also witness widespread misuse and abuse of power, resources and military along with a deterioration of social and moral values. The demands of women and minority groups for equal rights are also posing a challenge to present generation.

Humanity, to survive through such turbulent times, needs to combine reason with compassion in order to build constructive social and moral values. Thus, only with a change in human consciousness can society truly alter the destructive path we are on right now. In the era of globalization, developing a uniform human consciousness among both, men and women can only bridge the gender inequality as well as other inadequacies. Education helps in this process by cultivating critical ability in the individuals while mass media can provide a helping hand in propagating appropriate values.
This Seminar makes an attempt to understand the need and scope of developing human consciousness and values in the present day global society.



CONTENTS


THEME OF THE SEMINAR

PROGRAMME 5

Developing Human Consciousness –Going from assumptions to Knowing
Pawan K Gupta 7

Jeevan Vidya – Proposal for Right Understanding
Pawan K. Gupta and Anuradha Gupta 12

Spirituality – Its Role in Human Development
Jyothsna Kamath B., Dr. Ashok H.S. 17

Humanization of Education Millennium Agenda from Jeevan Vidya Perspective
Rakesh Gupta 22

Can Renewables Sustain a Consumer Society?
Rakesh Kumar Maurya 25

Gender Equality Through Development of Human Consciousness and Values
Ajay Jain 30

Developing Human Consciousness Through Education
(With reference to Jeevan Vidya)
Dr. Sandeep Pandey 34

Improving The Effectiveness of Present Education System
(A critique of the modern education system)
Dr. Sandeep Pandey 40

Learning in Villages Today: Remainders or Reminders?
Anuradha Joshi 47

Gender and the MDGs with reference to women as human
Smt. Sunita Pathak and Dr. Surendra Pathak 58

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SEMINAR - REPORT 74




PROGRAMME

Inaugural Function

Tuesday, 10th February, 2009 9.30 am to 11.30

Presided by - Dr. S.K. Somaiya, Chairman Somaiya Trust.
Chief Guest - Dr. Chandra Krishnamurthy, Vice-Chancellor, SNDT University.
Guest of Honour - Dr. Nandkishore Nautiyal
Guests- Shri S.V. Sista, Executive Trustee of Population First
- Smt. Leelaben Kotak, Somaiya Trust

Wednesday, 11th February, 2009

9.00 a.m. Registration

Chair Person-Dr. S. K. Bhavani
Speeches by Guests : Dr. Sandeep Pandey ( Magsaysay Award Recipient)
Dr. Pawan Gupta


11.30 to 1.00 p.m. SESSION 1

Gender Equality through Development of Human Consciousness and Values

Chair Person- Smt. Anuradha Gupta
Guest Speakers : Smt. Sunita Pathak
Paper Presentations


2.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. : SESSION 2

Role of Media in Developing Human Consciousness and Values in Democratic Society
Chair person - Dr. Surendra Pathak
Guest Speakers : Mrs. Laxmi Padmanabhan, a freelance journalist
Ms. Jamuna Rangachari, assistant editor, Life Positive.

3.45 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. : Paper Presentations









Thursday, 12th February, 2009


9.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m.: SESSION 3

Developing Human Consciousness in Global Society
Chair Person - Dr. Pawan Gupta
Guest Speakers : Dr. A. L. Sharada

11.15a.m. to 1.00 p.m.: Paper Presentations

2.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m.: Panel Discussion and Interactive Session on : Relevance
of Values in Civil Society

3.45 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.: Valedictory Function
Chief Guest - Dr. V.N. Magare, Director – B.C.U.D.
Guest of honour - Prof. A.P. Pradhan, Chief Academic Advisor,





























Developing Human Consciousness –Going from assumptions to Knowing

Pawan K Gupta*

Everyone concerned person in the world feels the need for developing human consciousness in the Global society. Because when we look at the world around, irrespective of diversity of opinions that human beings have - about how things ought to be or the reasons why things are the way they are - we cannot but agree that the world is heading towards disaster. We counter war and terrorism, by taking recourse to state sponsored violence. We amass not only ordinary weapons but also chemical and nuclear weapons to counter war! To counter corruption we give commissions and incentives! Basically whether we like it or not, we manage on two principles of greed and fear. We try and control the situation from deteriorating further by instilling/ invoking either fear or greed in people. These seem to be the only means left with us to manage things from deteriorating further. But we are not succeeding.

The world we have created in the last 500 years or so and in particular after the Second World War, in the last 60 years, the world driven by modern science and technology, modern economics and the modern systems (which are faceless - more remote than visible) – we try to solve one problem by creating a larger problem. But the problem which the (new) solution creates often comes to light, after a considerable lapse of time but is of a much larger and more dangerous proportion. Human memory being short, we often only see the solution, which is in the immediate, and do not see the connect between the solution (in the immediate) and the problem which gets created (in the future). So we develop medicines to cure something today, which results in a lethal disease tomorrow. We create cars to travel long distances in shorter and shorter span of time and then think of reducing pollution and traffic jams and accidents. We give subsidy to fertilizer companies (under the garb of giving subsidy to farmers) ostensibly to grow more food, the result of chemical fertilizers in the long run is disease both in human body and in the soil. We keep polluting our rivers by dumping all human and industrial waste and then bottle water for drinking at the price of milk and call ourselves civilized and the poor villager backward. We spend trillions on eradication of disease but hardly any effort is made to keep the human body healthy by providing it clean food, water and air. We are educating the poor villager to leave his healthy habits of food and lifestyle to take to our unhealthy ways to become advanced and sick.

The world we have created is largely driven by modern economics and its cousin modern science and technology. And the fundamental assumptions of this worldview are “only the strong will survive”; “resources are limited and human needs are unlimited”, that this Existence/ Nature is all chaos and there is no order in Existence of its own. The corollary to this belief is that human beings have to struggle for survival, they have to control nature for their immediate benefit (“benefit” being defined in the most narrow sense). There are huge assumptions behind the word “strong” or “fit”’ also - the assumption being those with more weapons and more economic control are fit and strong. These two - weapons and money - have a perfect alignment. Those with economic control buy and sell more weapons and the business of weapons gives them the economic power. AK 47 is sold both to the terrorist and those trying to control terrorism! We do not know and do not dare find out who benefits out of this trade – the beneficiaries have become faceless, they are remote. That is what modern system is all about. We talk of accountability but we can not hold anyone responsible because the system is immune it is faceless - everyone is invisible and remote in this system, created by the modern world. Nuclear technology is sold to make money and/ or to gain further control to make more money, more weapons. This dilemma by and large represents the idea behind the word “development”.

It is worth mentioning here that perhaps in the entire Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (100 volumes), the word “development”, a word which has come to be on every ones lips these days from a simple villager to the most astute politician of our times, in the last 70 years, has hardly been used. It is worth noting that this word was first used in this sense by American President Harry Truman in 1949. From that day development has taken on a singular meaning all over the world. Development has come to mean more and more consumption. The more you consume – be it wasteful consumption – the more developed you are. Every day new wants are being created which after a lapse of time become our needs. We are changing, we are loosing control unknowingly and we talk about freedom.

The word “development” is a classic example of how meanings behind words changes and can be maneuvered, if clarity is lacking. People are not even aware of the assumptions they carry while interpreting the meaning behind the words. They end up assuming the meaning without any knowledge. This is the power of media and academia.

It is sad but it is a fact that those of us who are concerned about these issues are themselves caught up in the whirl of technology. When someone talks like this, the tendency is to think of the wonders of modern science and technology. We find ourselves helpless, as most of us are so very dependent on modern technology and caught up in the systems (of governance, of technology, of economics created by modernity). So we refrain from looking deeply in this direction – it is too scary.

Human beings are driven by the assumptions they carry within themselves, whether they are aware of these assumptions or not. The shapers of modern world drive humanity by “creating” and instilling assumptions in people through what is termed as education these days and its handmaiden, media, which generates mass hysteria as if the world will collapse if you dare to think otherwise, if you question these assumptions. The simple villager is at least aware of his assumptions – for instance he believes in the caste system and he readily admits that he believes in this system but the educated are not even aware of their assumptions. They believe in science, believe in the idea of development without knowing and thinks they know whereas the fact is, they assume - do not know. There is a world of a difference between knowing and assuming. This is where education comes. Education is the journey from assuming to knowing.

Right education seems to be the only tool to develop human beings and human consciousness. We are the only specie who need to be educated – to be able to see (understand) the Existence as it is. And for being able to see dhyanakarshan and swadhyaya are the only tools.

So to develop human consciousness we need to be educated and see things as they are not assume them to be different from the way they are. At the moment we even lack clarity about samajhana / samjhana (understanding/ knowing) and seekhna / seekhana (training, learning by doing). Samjhana is to do with being while seekhna is to do with doing. At present the world and what we call ‘education’ is mostly focused on the doing aspect, the appearance aspect. Hence so much emphasis everywhere on how you appear, how you behave, how you look, what you do. I am not trying to negate these but the emphasis or priority needs to restored in favour of what you are (rather than how you appear), your being (rather than your doing). This is lacking in education today. The doing then will automatically be right. Because the doing emanates from the being. But if we are not even made aware of our being and never educated about the very existence of being, leave alone working at that level then the being keeps (unknowingly) imbibing all kinds of assumptions (from family, background, books, schools, media etc. ) without knowing. This leads to doing things which add to chaos, confusion, domination, “survival of the fittest”, fear, greed, insecurity, tension etc..

Animal species in the world behaves in a mutually fulfilling manner with rest of nature – plants and material order. Animal behaviour is not destructive but enriching for the nature. Animals do not need to be educated. We only “train” them in our interest. But no education is required. They are fine the way they are. Another thing worth noting in their behavior is that any specie, anywhere in the world – the behaviour is almost the same. All elephants, all rhinos are vegetarians – irrespective of whether they are from our part of the world or from Africa. The same holds true of all animals. But when we study human behaviour we find that even two siblings from the same family may be having completely different habits – one may be vegetarian the other may be a non vegetarian, one may be a celibate, the other may not be. This very easily identifiable difference between animals and us is important distinction. There is a need for human beings to be educated. We have two options – we will either know /understand or we will believe/ assume without knowing/ understanding. If we do not know and only assume then we end up doing things, which I have tried to enumerate in the beginning of this talk. We need to know, not the animal. Know what? – Know the reality as it is. We need to know because if live with assumptions (each one can assume reality to be different from what it actually is – e.g. there is chaos in existence (conclusion: we need to bring order in the universe), that the resources are limited and wants are unlimited (hence conclude: that we need to dominate and rule, exploit the other and/ or nature).

In tradition we have a story of a person observing a rope and assuming it to be a snake. This alters his behaviour (he may get scared, angry, violent etc.). But when he knows it to be a rope (and not a snake) then the behaviour automatically changes.

There is no need to train him. There is need to know. Once the person knows the behavior or the doing automatically gets aligned to the reality in existence. Today we are busy changing the behaviour – the doing, without having any understanding that the doing emanates from being (knowing or assuming). Education must work at the level of being – understanding. We are too focused on techniques, on subjects, on words – without knowing the meaning, the reality behind. So we end up squabbling about words without understanding what lies behind – the meaning under the mistaken assumption that words are the same as meaning. But meaning is within, meaning is universal, while words are time and location specific. There is nothing universal about in spite of all efforts to make English a global language, the reality is otherwise. But human beings have been designed in a manner that they can imagine, they can assume what they like – total freedom here! They can also do anything based on these imagined assumptions (devoid of any understanding or reality as it exists). In tradition we also had assumptions, but it seems that they were based on reality seen by the seers (philosophers if you like). Today the modern man – the educated, the experts, in their arrogance assumes and then imposes those assumptions on rest of humanity and then goes about solving the problems of the world, in turn creating bigger problems. They do not see reality as it IS. They ignore the harmony which exists in nature and in existence. They do not see that except human beings, the rest of nature is self-organized. Education has turned the normal person into a follower, who has to accept what the experts profess to be the truth. Education does not encourage the student to examine, to explore, to ask the most important, the most obvious fundamental question. For instance, who is this who is seeing, observing, doing? Who is this we call the human being? Human being not human doing.

India had an understanding – it seems when we sometimes see our ordinary person (who may not be doing from knowing but from habit or assuming also) behaving in a manner which is in alignment with the rest of nature. But modern education is turning us into violent persons full of fear and greed. We are constantly fighting (with each other and with nature) to survive. Education is turning the victim into an accomplice and a perpetuator of violence.

One major assumption of modern world is that human being is only the Body. I am body instead of I have a body. There is no acknowledgement of the distinction between I and Body as two separate and identifiable units in existence. Whereas the reality is not so. I needs to feel good, feel trusted, feel respected. Body only needs to be nurtured, protected and utilized in the service of I. Body needs food for nurturing, clothes and house for protection and certain equipments to meet the I. But if we do not acknowledge the two separately I ends up doing everything to derive only pleasure through the body under the mistaken notion that it will become happy by deriving pleasure from the body alone. From this follows that happiness is to be had by acquiring more and more physical facilities – the idea behind the notion of “development” in our times.

But the reality is that all physical facilities are transient where as the needs of I are perennial. Understanding or knowing is perennial. So to be happy we need to understand, to know.

In India we have a beautiful word for philosophy. It is called darshna - darshan is to see. To see means to know as it is, not assuming. We the human beings are the seers (drashta), we are the doers (karta) also. But we see according to our assuming or knowing (the drishti). So we say ‘jaisi drishti vaisi shrishti’. Meaning we assume and do/ behave as we see (assume or know). Education is the only tool to rectify the drishti. Our challenge is make education gives us the right drishti, to go from assumptions to knowing – ‘jaisi shristi vaisi drishti’. And each one of ushas to traverse this path. The seeing cannot be left to the experts alone.

Modern education has made an object into a subject. Philosophy has been dwarfed into a subject. Subjects after all are a mere tool to understand. Any subject helps us understand. There is no reality in subjects. They are man made constructs to help us understand reality. There is no reality in subjects. An extension of this misconception is carried further where books become the object instead of mere tools that help us understand. We can see this malice in every education system. Reality is in the object, what we see – darshan. What we need to do is to put all subjects in their place by having darshna as the foundation on which the subject are placed. That (darshan) unifies all subjects otherwise they are fragmented. Subjects have been over valued while darshna has been under valued in modern times. This needs to rectified.

So let us try to start by exploring the self – the I. This most used word “I” goes unnoticed. This – the knower needs to understood by self exploration, by examining, by reflecting, by observing, by examining the propositions made by those who claim they have seen and then either accepting or rejecting them but only after understanding in the self. Because accepting or rejecting is also meaningless unless one understands the way it was meant. Which is a pre requisite for any dialogue including the one here. Words we are all familiar with but do we understand the speakers meaning the way he/ she meant it. Having done that only we can take the next decision of accepting or rejecting.

Once we see reality the way it is we realize that we human beings have the same desires of happiness, trust, respect, love etc. This is the being aspect. This is universally true. This needs to be understood through right education. This also needs to be respected. But the way we nurture, protect and utilize our bodies and relate to each other and nature differ from place to place and in different times. This is the part of doing. Here we all differ – there is no standardization here. The world will always be diverse and different in this aspect and this needs to respected. Western civilization has dominated the world in last 500 years by imposing their ways entire humanity and after receiving the so called “education” we have been trained or conditioned to accept that their ways are the only ways. That consumption oriented “development” is the only way to progress. Those who differ have been branded as backward looking or traditionalists. This hegemony and mind control needs to be challenged as much as trying to restoring darshna to its rightful place of honor in education.


*SIDH, Hazelwood, Landour Cantt., Mussoorie 248179
















Jeevan Vidya – Proposal for Right Understanding
Pawan K. Gupta and Anuradha Gupta*
All the major problems in our world today have been created by human beings. Whether the problems relate to resource depletion, pollution, waste creation and global warming or to war, terrorism, or interpersonal problems - they are interrelated and result in making the earth unhealthy and life a struggle.
If we look at the entire universe we find there are units and there is space. The units can be classified into four broad categories –
1) The material order (padarthavastha) like soil, water, minerals, and all ‘man made items’ around us (which have not been made by man but merely transformed from natural resources). In fact there is no growth or development in the material order - only a conversion or transformation from one state into another. It is quite an irony that what we refer to as ‘development’ today is entirely based on transformation and not growth!
2) The plant order (pranavastha) includes all the greenery and vegetation This order is characterized by growth and regeneration;
3) The animal /birds order (jeevavastha).
4) The human order (gyanavastha)
The third and the fourth categories are made up of two separate entities-the physical body and non- physical self or the I.
The first three states or categories co-exist in a harmonious and mutually fulfilling manner. The plant order is dependent on the material order while the animal and human orders are dependent on both the material and plant order. While the higher orders take nourishment from the lower orders, they also enrich the lower orders. The trees draw sustenance from the soil but the leaves shed by the tree enriches the soil. The relationship between the three is not only that of mutual enrichment but there is no wastage as far as these three stages are concerned.
But while human beings are dependent on all the three orders, their own participation with the rest of the three orders is not in harmony. And above all their relationship with their fellow human beings is also not in harmony. Human beings do not seem to be living in a mutually fulfilling manner either with their own specie or with the rest of the three orders. They are only exploiting and not enriching the other orders.
Human beings are said to be social animals but when we examine this statement we find that all animal species are known to behave in a similar manner irrespective of the place of their birth. Animals have definite eating habits (either vegetarian or meat eating) regardless of the fact whether they are dwelling in Africa, Asia or Europe. In short their behavior is definite. This is true of all animal species unless a particular animal has stayed in close proximity with human beings and learns to behave in an unnatural manner. For instance cows are vegetarian. In Europe when they were fed with non-vegetarian food it resulted in the mad cow disease.
Human beings are different. We know that two people not only from the same cultural background but also from the same family can be very different from one another, in their behavior. In the entire existence, human beings alone have the freedom to choose, because they act or behave according to the way they perceive or understand reality. For example if there is a piece of rope lying on the ground and one perceives it as a snake, that person will act or behave accordingly. The person may get scared, aggressive or even violent, in right earnest. But the incorrect perception of the person will not change the reality, only affect the person’s behavior. The rope will still remain a rope and not turn into a snake! Human beings have a choice only at the level of perceiving (or understanding) but they seem to have no choice at the level of behavior or action.
In present times an idea which has gathered force is that there is no reality and it is all a matter of individual perception; that there is no universal truth and that each one of us has the right to our own truth (perception). The individual’s right to his perception, which is termed as truth, is known as freedom. In the absence of the knowledge of reality or definition of universal truth, this notion of individual freedom at one level, culminates in ‘your freedom stops where my nose begins’ and at another level in ‘survival of the fittest’. Hence to maintain some kind of an order or balance in society, this notion of individual freedom, necessitate an outside intervention. This intervention, has until now, come either in the form of moral teachings from religious heads or in the form of Constitution, the back bone of the modern nation state. But these have obviously not worked for us or else we would not be facing the present crises which are threatening the very existence of human beings.
Jeevan Vidya or Madhyastha Darshan is a proposal which tries to draw our attention to reality – the harmony in existence. Darshan is translated as philosophy, but it is more than that. Darshan means to see. Seeing here is used in the sense of understanding or knowing and ultimately realising. Darshan is to see reality – as it is.
Based on what we see and understand, we act. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting is done by the body through the eyes, ears, skin, nose and tongue but the understanding is done by the self or the I.
All units are connected and reflected on to all other units through space. The proposals of Madhyastha Darshan merely draw our attention to this reality (understanding of units and space), but each one of us will ultimately have to see and then realize that reality within ourselves. All our actions are a result of this seeing: the only choice we have is between perceiving (assuming) or knowing the reality as it is.
The proposals are about the essence of existence: Harmony in existence, which is co-existence, between units and space, and expansion of this principle of co-existence (or harmony) at all levels of existence: the self, the body, the family, society, nature, and the entire existence. The proposals are presented in 8-day workshops and participants are requested not to believe them but examine them, by holding themselves responsible; and not on the basis of a text or scripture, or sayings of great men; not even on the basis of conclusions drawn based on “scientific” instruments. The proposals are to be accepted only after a thorough examination by each of us using three methods a) introspection: see if it is true for us; b) inspection: see if it is true for those around us and c) survey: see if it is true for the rest of humanity. Only then can one be satisfied and accept the proposals. Participants are requested not to believe but to examine.
The essence of Madhyastha Darshan is based upon two fundamental facts: that it is the human being who understands and acts accordingly and that the desire behind each of his actions is to be happy. Irrespective of what we do, the essential motivation behind every action, is our desire to be happy. So if we are unhappy, the fault lies with our understanding of the reality. We take all actions (from our desire to be happy), either by knowing /understanding the reality or perceiving /assuming the reality. The desire to be happy is intrinsic to all human beings but we differ in our understanding of the reality. However we can evolve from perceiving to knowing. This can be accomplished through a human centred education. This is where Madhyastha Darshan comes in.
We have two kinds of desires: those desires which are materialistic and those that are non-materialistic. Materialistic desires like food, clothes, shelter and facilities/instruments of all kinds are limited, quantifiable and have weight. We do not desire them constantly and need a change, a break, an interval before we need them again. We need food but we need to stop eating before the desire for food arises again. As a matter of fact if we do not take intervals or frequently change the form, the very object of our desire can soon become intolerable to us!
There is another set of desires which are non-materialistic like – respect, trust, happiness, peace etc. We desire them endlessly and limitlessly. If we lacked trust or respect even for one moment, we would feel very uncomfortable and unhappy. These desires are not quantifiable but are qualitative in nature. If we look at these two categories, of desires, we find that the materialistic desires are needed either for nurturing and protecting our bodies or to use our bodies effectively, while the non materialistic desires (love, respect, trust etc.) are not a requirement of the body. These are needed by an entity, referred to in all languages by the word “I”. “I” needs unlimited trust, respect etc. all the time. So materialistic desires are needed by/ for the body while the non materialistic desires are the need of the “I” or the self. In fact most of the time if the needs of the “I” are not fulfilled, we may even overlook our bodily needs for e. g: even if we are hungry and we need food, it is acceptable only when it is given with respect, (which is a desire of the “I”).
As both desires are of entirely different nature, they require entirely different programmes for fulfillment. Unfortunately in the absence of this distinction between the needs of the body, and the needs of the I, the entire humanity is focused only on fulfillment of the needs of the body. But fulfillment of bodily needs does not ensure fulfillment of the non materialistic needs of the “I”. This then is the flaw in our understanding wherein we perceive or assume our body to be the same as the I. This results in unhappiness because it leads us to design programs for greater accumulation and exploitation of nature on the one hand, and domination and exploitation of fellow human beings on the other. We spend all our waking hours fulfilling the needs of the body and make no effort towards fulfilling the desire of the “I” for mutual trust and respect. Even those working for uplifting the down trodden are thinking mostly in materialistic terms.
Madhyastha Darshan helps in understanding the I or the self. As human beings we are constantly trying to ‘make sense out of’ things around us. Based on our understanding of ourselves and these units we then establish a relationship with them. This results in either happiness or unhappiness. Once we understand the self we can go on to understand the body and the harmony between the self and the body. For instance we understand that health is a natural state and intrinsic to the human body. Absence of this natural state of health culminates in disease. Disease is the absence of health and not vice versa i.e., health is not absence of disease. So if we understand the harmony in the body and the fact that the body is an instrument of the I, we (I) are motivated to take the responsibility of maintaining the health of our bodies.
We also understand that needs of the body are limited and needs of the I are unlimited. Once we understand that the needs of the body and I are different, and that the body is an instrument of the I, to help I achieve its (non- material) desires, we can also determine the material requirements of our body very clearly. With this understanding, for the first time, we can define prosperity. Prosperity is not a certain amount of money in our bank but it is a feeling of confidence and assurance that we are capable of producing more than enough to take care of our body, based upon our realization that that needs of the body are limited and there are abundant resources in nature. This is a challenge to the widely taught dictum in modern economics that ‘human desires are unlimited and resources are limited’, which is true only when under a mistaken notion, we try to fulfill the needs of the I, which are non materialistic in nature, through accumulation of physical facilities.
We realize that relationship between human beings is essentially between one “I” and the other “I” and not between one body and another body. Also that relationship IS; there is no need to create it: we only need to recognize and fulfill it. We also realize that at the core, the other “I” is exactly the same as me. Proposals are given concerning the basic human values which are the intrinsic human expectations of: trust (vishwas), respect (samman), affection (sneha), care (mamata), guidance (vatsalya), reverence (shraddha), gratitude (kritagyata), glory (gaurav) and love - no otherness - (prem or ananyata). The proposals are given to help understand and realize these values imbedded in all of us. All of us feel good when these values are fulfilled. They get fulfilled on recognition of relationship, which is a matter of understanding - seeing the harmony in relationship.
The effort is to see the reality of everything and not get stuck in words. Reality is followed by meaning of the reality (the artha of the vastavikta), followed by the word (shabda). (Reality →Meaning →Word). Proposals help us understand and see reality as it is and thus see the harmony in existence. There is no sermonizing about values but an attempt to understand the values as they are. There is no preaching here; only an attempt to understand the way things are and then act accordingly by recognising relationships based on this understanding. The proposals are about understanding and ultimately realizing these values within us, and also realizing that we are happy whenever we recognize and fulfill these expectations irrespective of the other. In other words we realize that the key to our happiness and hence the responsibility for our happiness lies with us and no one else. This is when we realize true freedom or swatantrata.
Jeevan Vidya attempts to make us understand universal human goals which are applicable to all. It thus helps us conceptualize a human society which is seamless and beyond borders. The proposals go on to explain the different orders in existence with all their various characteristics of roop (shape and size, which are changing with time and space), guna (the effect of one unit on another, which is also changing with time and space) and their swabhava and dharma (the intrinsicness, which remains the same; it is constant and unchanging). So we understand the unchanging, in the changing universe and thus establish a relationship with all units in existence taking into account that which is constant. We also distinguish between the needs of the body and the I, and understand that all material facilities or conveniences are ultimately only for nurturing (protection (clothes, shelter) and right utilization (all instruments, conveniences) of the body, which is an instrument of the I. We also understand that the desires of the I cannot be fulfilled by material conveniences and to fulfill those, we need to design a different programme. Right understanding leads to realization resulting in happiness and harmony.

*SIDH, Hazelwood, Landour Cant., Mussoorie –248179 Dist. Dehradun, Uttarakhand India






























Spirituality – Its Role in Human Development

Jyothsna Kamath B., Dr. Ashok H.S.*


Life today is vastly different from what it was, just mere decades ago. Traditional societies that have existed from thousands of years have inevitably undergone modernization brought about by automation, industrialization, urbanization, rapid advances in science and technology, communication and information technology, spread of education, etc. The more recent globalization of trade and the economy has shrunk the world into a global village. In terms of connectivity and sharing of knowledge, borders between nations have all but disappeared. These phenomena have greatly impacted not just work and trade practices, but have also led to socioeconomic developments that have been instrumental in bringing about major changes in politics and society, lifestyle and culture, values and ethics, world-views and approach to life itself. Emphasis has shifted from traditional values to secular-rational values, and there is a greater drive towards individual self-expression, human freedom and choice, and democracy. Mankind has been able to progress beyond its wildest dreams.

Ordinarily one would think that all these upheavals would take man to the pinnacle of happiness. However, in spite of significant strides on the materialistic front, these developments have other implications. Disparities among peoples of the world have widened owing to the obsession with increasing private property. Ethnic conflicts, nationalism and religious fanaticism have increased. Burning environmental issues need to be tackled. Advances in biotechnology and bio-informatics have raised complex ethical questions. At the psychological level, changes in the workplace, in the family and society, have had a great impact on people’s basic values, ethics and approach to life itself. Modern materialistic society places value on how much one has rather than what one is, and encourages narcissism. Aggressive marketing of newer products induces the consumer to want more and more, regardless of the need for or capacity to acquire them, creating an increasingly consumerist orientation. There has been a greater prevalence of stress, divorce, delinquency and many other issues with widespread psychological and social implications. Consequently there is a disgust with modern materialist society and modernization is to blame for removing the individual from the comfort of community, religion and harmony and throwing him into an urban world of uncertainty in which daily life is fraught with fear and insecurity.

In such a scenario, there is dissatisfaction despite increased possessions and a sophisticated lifestyle. Material progress became the sole indicator for development of a society, and emphasis on ethico-moral education has been neglected considerably. Consequently there seems to be a realization that man today lacks something that is essentially human. In this era of consumerism and materialistic striving yielding no lasting happiness or contentment, people are searching for deeper meaning, a sense of connectedness and wholeness. Instead of a one-sided materialistic emphasis, focus on efficiency, equity and ethics should therefore be the cornerstone of holistic globalization (Sharma, 2006).

Possibly a rediscovery of morals, ethics, values and a spiritual, though not necessarily religious, approach to living might help to draw modern man out of the quagmire of the present self-centered materialistic living and help individuals lead more satisfying lives. Practical spirituality is the need of the hour which needs to be initiated by orienting the able youth towards inner directed growth in alignment with the organizational/societal growth and at a more basic level, by preparing the younger generation through wholesome education. What is needed is an entire spiritual outlook towards work and life in general, which is devoid of religiosity religious nor and the one which is not highly expensive nor asking of the individual to become an island in society, but an integrated philosophy of daily living.

Work is a major part of human life, and engaging in a suitable occupation is often called the characteristic of a healthy adult. (Udyogam Purushalakshanam). Modern organizations have been at the forefront in receiving the impact of recent global developments. The market economy with its emphasis on competition, profits, efficiency and growth has had concomitant effects on the nature of work practices in modern organizations. Pressure to perform often leads to stress and burnout. Effort is directed constantly toward furthering one’s individual progress and enhancing monetary rewards. The concern for the good of the organization from a larger perspective with the good of the larger organization is lost in the drive to maximize one’s own interests, and often these two concerns are at odds with each other creating a deep void resulting in depersonalization and alienation leading to a reduced sense of well-being as well as adverse effects organizational productivity and progress.

Organizations are experiencing a strong need to achieve alignment between organizational and individual vision, for which spirituality has been recognized as a promising pursuit. However, today spirituality at the workplace has been introduced in the guise of a part of HR training where in the organizations claim to provide quick remedies for stress alleviation, improving cognitive abilities, etc. and arranging camps and retreats in exotic resorts through such programs. As a result of these, spirituality at the work place is turning out to be more of an economic activity than achieving the goals of self growth.

It is necessary to inculcate human values alongside proficiency and skills, a mature holistic focus rather than on productivity and profit, a shift from preoccupation with external gains towards inner personal development. Since values that one holds determine behaviour, strong human values translate into ethical behaviour. Practical spirituality with the chief goal of promoting human and organizational development could be practiced in various ways.

Organizations need to give importance to their commitment to values as part of their basic policy and communicate the same to its members during induction into the organization. Orientation programmes need to have a spiritual emphasis, where the organization’s commitment to values and ethical practices, and refusal to compromise them for maximizing profits, are stressed.

All activity in the organization is moderated by the organizational climate and culture, which needs to be conducive for individuals to practice ethical social conduct. For the organization’s motto to be practiced instead of remaining on paper, the climate should encourage employees for behaving ethically by providing valued incentives, preferably intangible since monetary incentives again would only feed the materialist hunger, and the entire exercise of encouraging integrity and commitment would lose its point. Valuing individual workers, their efforts and viewpoints would make them feel that they are an asset to the organization and not mere cogs in the blur of a profit-making wheel. They then feel personally responsible for the organization and thereby involve themselves in its uplift.

Individuals need to be motivated to work for the good of all. Termed as Lokasangraha, it fundamentally involves an attitude of moving beyond the narrow focus on self-gain, to work towards the betterment of the larger group to which one belongs. This could be the family, organization, community, society, nation, mankind and ultimately everything in nature. At the organizational level, there is a need to integrate the team or work group, and the organization as a whole, along with the immediate self and produce an expanded sense of self that would enable the individual to work towards progress, not just one’s own but that of the entire organization. The restricted individualistic focus gives way to broader collective concerns, thus reducing scope for interpersonal conflict and improving understanding, cooperation and group cohesion. The aspiration for all-round excellence overrides narrow personal gains, providing a sense of satisfaction of having contributed whole-heartedly for the greater good.

An equally important measure is enabling individuals to develop a sense of detached involvement to one’s work (Nishkama Karma or Anasakti). The component of detachment should not be taken to mean an uncaring stance, but the focus here is on carrying out one’s duties and responsibilities to the utmost that one is capable of, almost becoming the work itself, but not getting perturbed by its results. (Chakraborty, 2001). Hence performance is at the optimum and yet accountability is also not lost sight of.

All these measures require individuals to bring about a change in their attitudes, beliefs and world-views. Conviction about the effectiveness and utility of making these alterations will motivate individuals to apply these principles in daily life. A spiritual attitude and moral-ethical behaviour thus becomes not extrinsically imposed but instinctive.

However, promoting the growth of human values and ethics in adults is easier said than done. In many cases, it would involve unlearning certain ingrained attitudes and behaviours and relearning alternate ones, an extremely arduous task. Towards this end, inculcating them at a young age would be simpler and much more effective. Although, formal initiatives have been taken up by educational institutions as well as local and national bodies to include value-based education in the curriculum, these measures have not necessarily spelt success. The primary reason is that these exercises do not receive the requisite support and commitment from the instructors, who lack the conviction to undertake them wholeheartedly. Additionally, students perceive them as merely one more subject in the syllabus, in which they have to learn the course material and pass an exam. As Vygotsky (2006) said, “Its one thing to know how to act, and totally different to act correctly.” The instructors themselves do not understand the ‘value of inculcating values’, and hence are unable to get the students to do the same.

Practical spirituality with the primary goal of achieving societal development through promoting human development in education could be undertaken through infusing these values and principles in children through informal means of education and in the course of daily living.

The present is a product of the past. Each culture has its own set of legends and anecdotes, which have been passed on to children to shape their ‘character’, as many would say. The spiritual values and morals embedded in them need to be explained to children, and such stimulating interaction can be undertaken within the home much before formal education begins.

Another method could be through games emphasizing teamwork, in which children are taught to think beyond hedonistic concerns alone and to understand the others’ perspectives. Respect for others as individuals, their hopes and fears and empathizing with them will broaden the child’s sense of self and understanding of others, enable better group interaction and grow with the ideal of Lokasangraha.

Children today, exposed to the growing materialistic culture, often come to believe that the goal of life is to land oneself a plum job, acquire all material comforts possible and live a comfortable life. Children need to realize that life is about more than just these aspirations, and that one must focus more on the infinite potentialities within the individual which he can develop, if only he makes up his mind. They must be encouraged to reflect and introspect on the larger meanings of life, how they can be useful to the larger society and how they can work towards personal growth.

Various social problems and environmental concerns face humankind today. Children need to be sensitized to the implications of these upheavals so that they turn into concerned citizens and put in their efforts towards preventing further damage and bringing about socio-political and environmental betterment. They can then be trusted to want to eradicate child labour, global warming, terrorism and war, violence against animals etc.

In today’s world, no being seems to be immune to exposure to the mass media. A sizable portion of programmes telecast is claimed by many to be directly or indirectly responsible for deteriorating values. This could be turned around by effectively using the media to teach children basic human values of seeking truth, practicing honesty and appreciating beauty, tolerance, self respect, love for human dignity, respect and compassion for others, individual freedom and human rights, rejection of cruelty, conservation of life, the practice of non-violence and the culture of peace all of which have become more important today because of the problems facing mankind. Respect for others’ views and perspectives can be inculcated by getting them to survey different philosophies and cultures. Reasons for societal laws need to be explained so that they understand the importance of obeying them.

Additionally, students can develop their potential further through activities that spur creativity and originality, emphasizing gains from learning rather than errors and punitive action, enabling them to cope effectively with failure and negative emotions, appropriate conflict resolution skills and so on. Human values develop in a warm loving climate. Children need to feel secure and loved in the home, school, neighbourhood and community to progress to higher levels of development. They must be taught the principle of Karma Yoga, where one performs one’s duties and tasks with wholehearted effort, but does not overly concern oneself or get perturbed by the results.

Beyond training children to learn these ideals, teaching by example would be the most effective way of getting them to assimilate the same. Children learn much more by observing how significant others in their life think, feel and behave. This would require that significant people in the child’s circle of influence inculcate values and behave ethically themselves, which in turn requires recognition by the parents, teachers, and community resource persons of the contribution of human values in shaping individuals, to make them better citizens and ultimately better human beings. In this manner, spirituality is not to be misunderstood as making renunciates out of ordinary individuals, spurring them to give up all worldly concerns and live in remote hermitages, but is a practical science to motivate the individual to go about ordinary life activities in an extraordinary way, to realize the importance of being good human beings, to make life worthwhile, whereby life is a joy to live.


References:
- Sharma, Subhash. (2006). Towards Holistic Globalization: Market, State, Society and Self. In Akhilesh, K.B., Gurtoo, Anjula and Mahapatra, Gopal. (Eds). Enabling Execution Excellence – Global Agenda. Mumbai: Himalaya Publishing House.
- Chakraborty, S.K. (2001). The Management and Ethics Omnibus. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
- Vygotsky, L.S. (2006). Educational Psychology. Indian Edition. Translated by Silverman, Robert. Delhi: Pentagon Press.


* Dr. Ashok H.S., ** Ms. Jyothsna Kamath. B
Department of Psychology, Bangalore University Bangalore 560056. ashokbub@gmail.com jyothsna.kamath@gmail.com

























Humanization of Education
Millennium Agenda from Jeevan Vidya Perspective

Rakesh Gupta*


United-Nations identified following eight development goals for this millennium – (1) End Poverty and Hunger, (2) Universal Education, (3) Gender Equality, (4) Child Health, (5) Maternal Health, (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, (7) Environmental Sustainability, (8) Global Partnership. More details on this can be accessed at the website http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.

This is undoubtedly the first time in human-history, when there is an attempt to think of goals of whole humankind for the next millennium. There is an underlying assumption here that entire human-population on Earth intends to achieve the same set of goals. Therefore, unless the commonality of intention is identified precisely – the disagreements will remain at the level of goals, programmes, procedures, and efforts. What is the commonality of intention across the entire human-population? This is a very fundamental question. It gets down to asking – what does each and every human-being want, irrespective of the means it uses for realizing that want. The answer to this big question is actually very simple. It is “Happiness” that every human wants continuously and naturally. It’s the same situation with rich or poor, educated or uneducated, urban or rural, believer or non-believer – everyone’s basic-intention or natural-expectation is happiness.

Expectation for happiness is the defining trait of human specie.

Humankind’s happiness is a positive, natural, and universally-acceptable basis for setting the goals for new millennium. When we look at the UN defined Millennium goals – the approach there seems to be first by identification of problems, and then seeking measures to “attack” and “fix” those problems. This is a “problem-centric” approach. There’s an underlying assumption that if these problems are somehow defeated or destroyed, the world will automatically become a better place. This approach is without a definite vision for a harmonious and progressive world. It is perpetuating the same underlying ideologies – which are the very root-causes for the catastrophic situations it is trying to solve. An ideological shift is needed for resolution for this situation.

When we begin millennium goal-setting around Happiness – we need its universally acceptable definition. Happiness – though a seemingly simple sounding word – doesn’t imply one thing to everyone at every time. Volumes of books have been written about it – both from materialism and from idealism followers - without nailing down its universally-acceptable definition. This is the root-cause of prevalent ideological divides and segmentation of humankind. Some believe happiness to be a sensation in body – and keeping the senses satisfied as the way for ensuring perpetual-happiness (materialism). Some believe happiness is not in the purview of senses – therefore they sermonize and prescribe practices for denial of senses and material world (idealism). Both these approaches have failed in realizing continuity of happiness for any one person. Millennium goal-setting can’t be done based on these ideologies.

Madhyasth-Darshan (Jeevan Vidya) proposes – “Resolution itself is Happiness.” A human-being’s having definitive answers for every how and why – spiritually, intellectually, and materially - alone can assure its living with continuously with harmony or happiness. It can also be understood that unless a person is resolved spiritually, intellectually, and materially – there’s no way for him to be truly happy. Going a step further – spiritual, intellectual, and material together cover the entire existence (all that is). From a human-centric view – Existence is self and relationships with all human-beings and nature at large saturated in the limitless Space. Therefore a human-being needs to be resolved about existence (all that is) in order to be happy. However big, difficult, or impossible this may sound – there is no other way happiness of a human-being could be envisaged. Resolution naturally becomes the natural-goal or purpose of every human-being. Living with resolution alone can be purposeful-living therefore.

If we try to assess present human-condition – we seem to be having problem with each and every relationship that we have, at all levels. Present human-condition is characterized by the following three deadlock situations.
1. Climate-Change – due to being unresolved about relationship with Nature,
2. Communal-Divisiveness – due to being unresolved about relationship with other humans,
3. Criminal-Mentality – due to being unresolved about ‘self’.

The root-cause of these deadlock situations is humankind’s being unresolved. The mainstream – the State, Education, Judiciary, Business – are not built around truthful understanding of purpose and design of existence. The mainstream has gone berserk – and is heading for a disaster characterised by the above three situations. The underlying understanding or assumptions on which the mainstream is built – all over the world – is inconsistent, purposeless, and inhumane. This mainstream’s understanding in literature is mapped to three theses. First of these three is, Freudian Theses of Psychology – which manifested in the mainstream’s maniacal pursuit for sex. Second is Theses of Economics – built around Adam Smith’s propositions - which manifested as maniacal pursuit for profit. And finally, Thesis of Sociology – built around Darwin’s hypotheses – which got manifested as maniacal pursuit for luxuries and comforts. These theses don’t cognate human-being’s natural-expectation to be happiness, and its natural-goal as resolution. These propound struggle and competition as the way for human-success. These three together define the mainstream since last 300 years or so – and are at the root of present disastrous situation. Mainstream needs alternative to these. An Alternative – that is based on truthful understanding of purpose and design of existence.

A human-being is an entity of knowledge-order – and it lives out its understanding. Education is the established system for imparting that understanding. Present education-system – all over the world - is doing more harm than good. It is incapable of providing resolution. The basis of prevalent factory-like education across the world itself is inconsistent, purposeless, and inhuman. Many people and organizations across the world recognized its lunacy – and they opposed and renounced such education for themselves and for their children, and pledged to de-school the entire human-society. Still these voices have remained as a reaction, not as a practicable resolution for this situation. What should be in the place of prevalent education? – has remained unanswered or is ambiguous.

The need for truthful understanding of existence – which is universal, practicable, humane, logical, consistent, and purposeful – has remained unfulfilled. Madhyasth-Darshan (Jeevan Vidya) is a proposal for fulfilling this need. It has alternative proposals for prevalent economics, psychology, and sociology. It is termed “alternative” – because it is linked neither with materialism (propagated by prevalent science) nor with idealism (propagated by established religions). It is study-able proposal for bringing about a change in human-consciousness. A number of non-governmental and educational institutions in India have incorporated this proposal into their curriculum – and there are some very encouraging results to report. Chhatisgarh State Education (in India) is making significant advances in implementing this proposal for the whole state. Numbers of educational institutions in India (including this Somaiya Vidyavihar institute) are conducting regular Jeevan Vidya workshops for their students. The proposal of Jeevan-Vidya (Madhyasth-Darshan) is devoid of mysticism and communalism, logical – therefore study-able through education, and universally applicable for every human-being.

Humanization of Education is the Millennium-agenda from Jeevan Vidya perspective. Sincere efforts for implementing this vision are on by small but rapidly growing number of individuals and families with very encouraging results to declare. Efforts are on for designing syllabi for school-education, producing literature-content in all languages, build awareness about this proposal through jeevan-vidya workshops, print and electronic mediums, making it part of value-education programmes of schools and colleges, and setting up models of living based on this understanding. Education is the leverage-point for bringing about the change in collective-mindset of humankind. Humanized-education alone can bring about the humane mindset – which alone is the way out of present catastrophic human-conditions.

Jeevan-Vidya (Madhyasth-Darshan) provides three theses for humanization of education, which are: - 1. Behavioural Sociology, 2. Cyclical Economics, 3. Human-Consciousness Oriented Psychology. At their root these theses have clarity of existence expressing itself as coexistence at all its levels. This is a proposal for study of human-being, consciousness, and human-ness. Madhyasth-Darshan gives the basis for Value-Education through Consciousness-Development. Evidence of this knowledge is human-being realizing its resolution in all aspects of living with harmony. At the larger level its evidence would be humane-society and orderliness.

Humanization of Education is a definite way forward for next millennium. United Nations is an appropriate institution with its charter and resources to address this universal and natural human-need.

- Above presentation is based on Madhyasth-Darshan (Jeevan Vidya) propounded by Baba Shree A. Nagraj Sharma, in my capacity as a student.








Can Renewables Sustain a Consumer Society?

Rakesh Kumar Maurya*

Introduction

Renewables have been the main source of energy and material supply in societies for many centuries, and this continued roughly till 1850. With the start of the era of power machines based on coal and other fossil fuels (first coal, later oil), the predominance of renewables decreased. The explosive growth of mainly the organic chemical industry after World War II, driven by the production of fossil fuel-based polymers, further reduced the role of renewables. However, in the last decades of the twentieth century, some drawbacks of the fossil resource-based society became obvious in terms of environmental problems. Although non-renewables undoubtedly have contributed tremendously to the welfare of the society, it became obvious that gaseous, liquid and solid emissions into the environment had detrimental effects. Environmental concerns expressed by concern groups and supported by the public forced the authorities to undertake environmental regulations on emissions. This resulted mainly in the 1980s and 1990s in environmental technology (mainly end-of-pipe approach), enabling gas, liquid and solid waste treatment [1]. At the end of the twentieth century, the sustainability issue became widespread in the society. It became accepted wisdom that technology not only should perform well in terms of preventing emissions, but also that it had to be rethought in a broader perspective. Based on the concept of sustainability, it is clear that, with a growing world population, an increasing standard of living and with long-term detrimental effects caused by fossil resources, particularly global warming, renewable resources are ready to make a comeback.
Attention is drawn to the fact that ‘renewables’ as such is a quite vague term, covering biomass, wind, solar and hydropower. Basically, the engine of renewable resource production is the sun, inducing biochemical processes (biomass growth) and physical processes in the atmosphere resulting in wind and precipitation. Both biochemical and physical processes lead to a large diversity of ‘renewables’. Wide range of resources can be used both for energy and material purposes.

It is important to explore the existential limits that earth can sustain without damaging natural order. How much energy renewables on earth can supply to fulfill Human need? Can earth / renewables supply as much as human beings want? Many of us have firm belief that Human needs are unlimited and resources are limited. If this is case, then fundamental question is that can unlimited needs be satisfied with limited resources? No, it means that Human being is bound to be deprived. Deprivation is not acceptable to any human being. Then what is the mistake? Another important issue is “sustainability”. What is that called sustainable? To answer all these questions further exploration on human needs and its fulfillment is needed. In the following section human needs and sustainability are discussed.

Human Needs and Fulfillment
Every man wants to live with continuous happiness and feeling of prosperity. If we observe our lifestyle today, almost all our efforts and time goes in order to ensure physical facilities. The inherent presumption behind this effort is that physical facilities will ensure continuity of happiness. If we look into this presumption, what appears is that in case of lack of physical facilities one feels unhappy. But it is well known that having enough of physical facilities cannot ensure continuity of happiness. Thus it becomes essential to address to the need of happiness and physical facilities separately (both being important). Therefore, one must understand happiness, physical facilities and the inter-relation between the two.
Physical facilities basically consist of physico-chemical things, which are used for the nurturing, protection and right utilization of the body. Today people are in the habit of deriving happiness out of the sensations coming out of the touch of these physio-chemical things. If the sensation is favorable (on expected grounds) to our taste then one gets happiness, otherwise feels unhappy (or not so happy) about it.
Human being cannot get continuity of happiness out of the sensation coming out of physico-chemical things. This is because to ensure the continuity, it is needed to maintain a constant contact with physico-chemical things, which is highly unlikely (if not impossible). Even if one tries to maintain a constant contact, then it would be interesting to note the pattern of the sensations coming out of it. At first, the sensation seems favorable and necessary. As the contact continues, the sensation seems to get unnecessary though favourable. Soon it turns unfavorable sensation followed by intolerable sensations and thus we are forced to release the contact of that physio-chemical thing. Thus something which started as being source of happiness soon turns into a source of gross unhappiness. And so, it is necessary to fall into the trap of changing our source of sensation from one to another from time to time. This requires unlimited amount of physical facilities. Thus, requirement of enormous amount of physical facilities act as seed for the formation of consumer society.
Since one is not able to derive the continuity of happiness through sensations, then it is believed that physical facilities are not enough. So one tries to accumulate more and more physical facilities and thus falls into the trap of consumerism. Whenever continuity of happiness in not derived through sensations from physical facilities, it is never concluded that it is not possible to achieve the continuity to happiness through sensations which is a simple fact. In order to ensure continuity of happiness, the source of happiness needs to be continuous (which physico-chemical things can never be).
To ensure continuity of happiness right understanding and right feelings (in relationship) are required. Right understanding leads to happiness, right feeling in relationship leads to happiness. Whenever there is lack of right understanding in the self, there is lack of clarity; there is doubt and fear, which leads to unhappiness. Whenever one lacks right feelings in relationship, or has feeling of opposition it leads to unhappiness.
Knowledge gives rise to right understanding and right feelings. If our understanding is based on mere imagination or if one is not authentic about it, then such understanding will not have continuity. Therefore, knowledge in the self is required for right understanding, which leads to continuous happiness. Knowledge leading to right understanding mainly consists of three parts- a) knowledge of the self, b) knowledge of things around upto the entire existence and c) understanding of the relationship between self and each unit in existence (which is also referred to as human conduct).

By ensuring the happiness in the self through right understanding and feeling, the need of physical facilities for nurturing, protection and right utilization of body can be rightly identified. When physical needs are rightly defined, they all turn out to be required in a limited quantity. These limited needs can always be fulfilled. There is enough provision for it in the nature as well as enough potential in human being to realize these provisions. Therefore, one never needs to be deprived, on account of lack of natural resources (quite contrasting to what modern economy says!). All that it really requires is the right identification of the physical needs.

To fulfill the need of physical facilities in terms of energy and material requires production by cyclic and sustainable processes existing in nature. It is essential to understand the concept of sustainability and harmony existing in the nature, in order to fulfill human needs. Based on this understanding of natural order, production and consumption pattern can be planed which is then environment friendly and sustainable existentially.

Sustainability and Natural Order

Sustainability is today’s catch word and is often used without much meaning. Sustainability, in a general sense, is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state continuously. The concept of sustainability applies to all aspects of life on Earth and is commonly defined within ecological, social and economic contexts. Sustainability involves the adoption of thinking and practices which are socially responsible, environmentally sound and economically viable. In addition to that, sustainability must be based on existential ground i.e. based on understanding of natural order. The process or state is sustainable, if it is in harmony with nature and natural order.

Units in nature can be divided in to four orders namely Human order (Human Beings), Animal order (Animals), Pranic order (Plants) and Material order (all Materials like soil, water, air etc.). There is coexistence i.e. a relation of mutual fulfillment among four orders of nature, which is shown in Figure. In the forest, there is a perfect harmony in the material order; pranic order and animal order. Three orders fulfill their mutual relationship of fulfillment .This mutual fulfillment from human being is doubtful.
The relationship between the material, pranic and animal order is mutually fulfilling and enriching. This process is cyclic in nature. For example, a seed is planted in soil and water is added. Tree takes nutrition from material order and grows flowers, bears fruit. The leaves ripen, fall on the ground and enrich the soil forming manure by decaying. Seeds are scattered from the fruits once more onto the soil. The same cycle


Figure1: Other than human beings, all the three orders in nature are in mutual fulfillment

gets repeated, manure formed again. This way the soil gets enriched, seeds are multiplied and tree grows. Everything is regenerated. This is Nature’s way of enriching the material and plant order. Animals take nutrition from pranic and material order and their extraction is absorbed by these orders. Naturally these processes are working at certain rate. This rate of cyclic process in nature is very important to understand. A tree will grow with its own rate depending on its species and when its leaves and wood fall on earth the decay rate will also depend on its surrounding materials and its species. CO2 is produced by natural processes like respiration etc., it has method to consume naturally by plants etc. So, in nature production and consumption of things are going on at certain rate which is mutually fulfilling for all the orders. Human beings can not alter this rate. When human beings start to consume any thing at the rate at which it is not generated in nature, then it leads to depletion of resource. When human beings generate anything which is not consumed in nature at that rate, it leads to environmental pollution. For example, the rate of CO2 generated by human being by combustion of fuels is greater than the rate at which it is consumed by plants. In additions to that deforestation is also done to reduce the rate of consumption. This leads to accumulation of CO2 in the environment, which is one of the causes of global warming.

By understanding these cyclic and mutually fulfilling processes in nature human being can be fulfilling to remaining three orders. All the three orders are fulfilling their relationship with human being. So Human being must organize its life style in fulfillment with these three orders.

To fulfill the need for physical facility (in terms energy and material), production process has to adapt to the natural order so that it is mutually fulfilling to all orders of nature. Non-cyclic processes are unnatural and they lead to depletion of resources and environmental pollution. Production processes need to be cyclic and not open-ended. Production is already taking place in nature; it is not that human beings are going to produce for the first time. At the most, Human may want to extend this cyclic process – for understanding of the process in necessary and then one can decide the program accordingly. This means all the needs for physical facilities (which are limited in nature if identified with right understanding) can be fulfilled in nature by human being by cyclic processes.

Through this exploration it is clear that needs for physical facilities for nurturing, protection and right utilization of body can be fulfilled by renewable sources. Here renewable sources include all the sources which are the parts of cyclic processes between all the orders in mutually fulfilling manner. These sources can be identified as Human energy (at the level of body - major parts of energy needs can be fulfilled by Human Energy, if rightly identified, developed and utilized), Animal Energy ( Cowdung, Gobar gas, bullock driven water pumps etc.), Plant Energy ( Wood, Gasifier, oil extraction etc) and Material Energy (water flows, wind, solar, geothermal, tide etc.). But these sources can not fulfill unlimited amount of energy needs of consumer society as of today. These can fulfill the limited amount of energy needs, which is more than required by Human being for nurturing, protection and right utilization of body.



Conclusion

Every Human being needs continuity of Happiness in the self and physical facilities for nurturing, protection and right utilization of body. In the present scenario human being tries to fulfill his entire requirements (Happiness and Physical facility) by physical facilities. So the requirement of physical facility seems to be unlimited. Unlimited amount of need for physical facility in terms of energy and material can not be derived from renewable and non-renewable sources.

There is a widespread assumption that a consumer-capitalist society, based on the determination to increase production, sales, trade, investment, “living standards” and the GDP as fast as possible and indefinitely, can be run on renewable energy. But earth can sustain limited and definite amount of energy and material consumption while maintaining mutually fulfilling relationship with all the four orders. It came out from discussions that nature has its own method of enrichment and fulfillment of all orders. So human being needs to understand the process and fulfill his needs accordingly. So, An extremely low footprint and energy use can be achieved, but only if there are vast changes in lifestyles, economies, political systems, settlement geographies and value systems.

In summary, consumerism as way of life can not be sustained by renewables but right utilization of physical facilities as way of life can be sustained by renewable sources of material and energy.


Reference:
1. Dewulf J. and Langenhove H.V., “Renewables-Based Technology: Sustainability Assessment”, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
2. Nagarj A., “Samadhanatmak Bhautikwad” Jeevan Vidya Prakashan, 1998.
3.

*Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur



















Gender Equality Through Development of Human Consciousness and Values

Ajay Jain*


An Historic Perspective:

From time immemorial the female human species have been treated with en-equality and inferiority. There are many references of this in the history, epics and prevalent in our present customs, cultures & traditions.

There are references where females have been compared with animals, they have been traded/ used as commodities, gambled about, shared and so on. There have been instances where they used to be hanged along with their husbands (chieftain of the tribe) after the death of chieftain with the belief that the chief would have a good life after death in their company. These references are not local and does not belong to a specific region of the world, rather were being practiced in one form or another throughout the planet. Sati Pratha is well documented in Indian Context.

Of- course there are some good example of women being respected/ regarded high in the society. That itself shows that these were aberrations rather than the rule.

Even today, a lot of violence is done on women by men throughout the globe.

How the human consciousness can change that? To understand this, let us understand the reasons for such a condition of a large population through out the globe.

Mechanism of change:

The condition and interrelationship of one section or the other in the society depends on the culture/ customs/ traditions of the society which depends on the beliefs and prevalent thoughts of the society. These are shaped by the understanding of these interrelationships by masses, initiated/ propagated through years by influential/ knowledgeable/ revered people and upheld and nurtured through education and state laws in the society. This is a dynamic process and the process gets further shaped up and refined on the basis of the feedback and effects of such culture/ customs/ traditions on the society and thus it is cyclic/ helical process.

The belief behind such culture/ customs/ tradition is what I call collective Human Consciousness. Quiet often this collective human consciousness has not been truly ‘Human’ and this is the reason we need to change, as desired results have not been achieved.

How to really call what is ‘Human Consciousness’ and what it is not?

In my opinion the beliefs which takes the society towards the all time cherished goal i.e. ‘Intellectual Clarity, Prosperity, Fearlessness, Co-existence’ for all human beings on the planet.
Intellectual Clarity here means the education, which brings clarity in the person by which he himself is resolved.
Co-existence means – mutually fulfilling inter-relationships at all levels with all the entities i.e. matter, plant, animals and human beings.


















An Overview of relationship between beliefs and culture/customs:

Let us see through history what prevalent thoughts, beliefs resulted in customs, cultures, traditions etc and how there changes resulted in the variations in the conditions of one section of the society, female in specific.

1. Females are inferior to men – They are not given due place in the social fabric.
2. They are good for household works only – The scope of education and participation in economic, polity and religion was limited.
3. They are not good at mathematics – Openings in the field of engineering, economics etc were limited.
4. They do not have enough physical strength – Openings for entry in defense, certain sports etc were limited.
5. They are good in providing personal care services – Openings in the field of nursing were more.
6. They are good in fine and repetitive work – Most of intricate embroidery work, repetitive electronic assembly line work etc were carried out by little girl hands.
7. Females, if given freedom will fall prey to men – Restricted to work in-doors.
And so on….
Present Reality:

However over a period of time, wherever opportunity has been given, females have proven them to be equal match, if not better, in intelligence, skills, management, decision making, polity, religion and so on.

However this understanding has yet not percolated down to a situation where it has been accepted by masses and to be part of custom/ culture/ tradition across the globe. It seems this is still at an experimental level and being practiced by a fractions of the society.

So I would say it is at the level where it is a new understanding supported with evidence however need to be propagated with vigor and zeal to make it a norm of the society.

Steps required to bring about a change:

The steps required to bring about this change to the whole society are –

Education – education of the masses, of religious leaders, of political leaders about the above facts.

Creation of infrastructure – Opening up of schools, colleges, skill centres.

Protection by law – Laws to facilitate education, strictly deal with any discrimination.

Awareness by media – Media can play a major role in creating awareness amongst general populace by writing success stories of female from different walks of life in public domain. By creating role models at every level of the society – religious, political, educational. Some time it is seen that media only projecting those female leaders which are a rubber stamp of their husbands/ sons giving a wrong overall pictures where as equally competent examples are available where they are proving themselves an equal match if not better and this is also to be projected equally. (with statistics keeping in mind their less number etc.)

I think we have to work at all these fronts to make it happen.

Human Consciousness and Values:

To my understanding male and female are complimentary to each other and are not in competition but in co-existence.

Family is the basic unit of the society and hence equality of not only opportunity in participation in economic, religious and political level but equality and mutual fulfillment at the individual level in the form of respect, gratitude, recognition of their contribution is to be appreciated and understood.

This is what I would call Human Consciousness and Values. They have been there since time-immemorial at individual levels (as sometimes called inner voice) or in certain pockets of the society at times. Now these have become more pronounced in the intellectual circles and being accepted as un-disputable facts. Thus only need remains to develop and nurture a conducive environment to make these flourish to make it prevalent over to larger section of the society and to the whole globe.

As they say – it is not act but the intent which is more important, it is not the aptitude but attitude which is more representative of oneself, it is not the success but will to succeed that matters, I would say it not equality of work alone but the equality of respect, gratitude, recognition and realizing that we are here to make this world a better place where we are part of one united society having – intellectual clarity, prosperity, fearlessness and coexistence (rather than competing) and thus making a way forward for people to individually live with – happiness, peace, contentment and bliss.

This is what I think is the Human Consciousness and Values. In my opinion the sure shot way to make anything long lasting has its roots in education. So finally we must find ways to instill these values through education.

Way forward:

I would say the greatest contribution of this seminar could be finding a globally acceptable methodology/ syllabus to put these in education. To my understanding ‘Jeevan Vidya’ (JV) has such a potential however we need to critically examine this and other alternatives.

Key words: Co-existence, education, culture, respect, gratitude, recognition, and tradition.

References:
1) ‘Nari Ka Mulya’ By Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, 2004, Star Publication.
2) ‘Manav Vyavhar Darshan’ By Shri A Nagraj Shrma, 2003, Jeevan Vidya Prakashan.


*Head of Maintenance, Hazira LNG Pvt Limited (HLPL), Surat.
B Tech from IIT Delhi in Mechanical Engineering,




















Developing Human Consciousness Through Education
(With reference to Jeevan Vidya)

Dr. Sandeep Pandey*


The philosophy of Jeevan Vidya, popular name for Sah-Astitwawad , is a recent development in human thinking. Shri A. Nagraj of Amarkantak has propounded this philosophy. Unlike Spiritualism, which is God-centered and mystical in nature, and Science, which is matter-centered and uncertain in nature, Jeevan Vidya is human-centered and deterministic in nature. Since spiritualism and science have failed to universally satisfy the quest for knowledge for human beings in a manner which could result in a just human order, there was a need to look beyond these two major streams of thought which have guided human beings so far on earth.

Jeevan Vidya identifies two distinct and independent components in a human being – the material body and the consciousness (‘jeevan’ or ‘chaitanya ’). Spiritualism or science do not recognize their independent existence. The need of the material body are material in nature and are fulfilled by the material world. The need of the ‘jeevan’ or ‘chaitanya’ are knowledge of the self, the body, the family, the society, the nature and the larger universe in a manner so that a way of living could be evolved which would bring all the above-mentioned six levels in harmony. Only such an individual who has both the set of needs fulfilled can be described as a happy individual. A happy individual would be a source of happiness for other individuals. These two set of needs can be described as needs of ‘samajikta’ and ‘swawalamban.’

Hence the objective of the education programme is to fulfill the above-mentioned two set of needs. Human values, like trust, respect, love, would have to be inculcated which will form the basis of a just human order. Skills would have to be taught which will make individuals capable of earning their livelihood. If such an education programme is implemented this will meet the needs of every individual of any family or community. It is to be noted that the present education system in not fulfilling these needs and in fact is forcing the individuals to move away from such a direction.

The education programme will essentially consist of imparting the knowledge of the self, body, family, society, nature and the larger universe. This knowledge will help the individual to find a single way of living which will ensure that there is a positive effect on all the six levels at which an individual has to live and there is harmony among different levels of living. Lack of such a knowledge is the biggest challenge facing the human kind.

The most important thing is the recognition of jeevan or chaitanya as a distinct entity and the fact that the satisfaction of needs of the material body and that of jeevan require two different programmes. The satisfaction of one set of needs does not depend or guarantee satisfaction of the other set of needs. To be able to live in relationships which are source of perennial happiness largely fulfills the need of jeevan. At the level of society such relationships would reflect in terms of a ‘Parivar Mulak Gram Swarajya Vyavastha ’ (Family-centered System of Village Self-reliance). Such a system will ensure the systems of education, health, production, exchange (of material items) and justice are in place in a community which results in the creation of a just human order. Each family will be engaged in some primary production processes (in the areas of food, clothing, housing, transportation and telecommunication). The community members will be responsible for the management of these systems as well on a voluntary basis. Nobody will have to work for wages or trade (act as middleman) for earning their livelihood. There will be no profit oriented market. Neither will there be any currency. However, every product will be assigned a ‘labour value.’ The production will be in response to the five sets of above-mentioned basic material needs of human beings. An elaborate system of exchange supported by modern transportation and telecommunication facilities will take care of all the needs of all human beings.

There will be a well defined system of decentralized (village based) administrative system to manage all the five systems of education, health, production, exchange and justice or to take care of any other matter concerned with human life at any of the levels. A body at the village level comprising of a member from each family will be the most basic and important executive decision making body. There will be no political parties nor any bureaucracy. The people will directly run their systems and interlink so that a smooth bottom-up hierarchy from the village level to the world level is in place. The concept of nation state will become redundant in such a system.
The Meaning of Education
We have examined the failures of our education system in great detail in an earlier article. The education system is not fulfilling any of the perceived needs of people. It does not make us any civilized or progressive in some qualitative sense which will make the world a better place to live in for everybody. We don’t see any qualitative difference in terms of wisdom or behaviour between educated and uneducated people. It does not impart any knowledge. All it does is equip the individual with loads of information. And even that is not being done honestly. And lastly, it fails to guarantee even the most possible thing requiring only material means – the livelihood – to all. We see more people becoming unemployed or underemployed as a result of going through the process of education than the other way around. This all round failure of the education system calls for taking another look at the basic nature of the process itself. What are the objectives of the present education system? The fault probably lies in the basic nature itself more then its implementation, which even the most sincere of us wanting to carry out a reform in the process make the mistake of believing. What should be the objective of education? What will the nature of education system be like? What is the vision of society it will hope to build? These are questions we wish to answer through this article. Before entering this realm, which may seem idealistic to some, it is worthwhile emphasizing that we should be prepared to dispense with the present education system if we don’t see it achieving the desired objectives. Any tinkering with the current education system is out of the scope of this article because it is impossible in that fashion to bring about the changes that are being suggested in this article. A complete relook at the process is being done and things would have to start from the basics. We’ll have to build from the scratch. It will also require unlearning some of the things that may be very dear to us for various reasons.
Objective of Education
The most comprehensive definition of the objective of education is derived from the ‘Jeevan Vidya’ or ‘Sah-Astitwawad’ philosophy of Shri A. Nagraj, which is a recent development in human thinking.

Jeevan Vidya identifies two distinct and independent components in a human being – the material body and the consciousness (‘jeevan’ or ‘chaitanya ’). Spiritualism or science do not recognize their independent existence. Unlike Spiritualism, which is God-centered and mystical in nature, and Science, which is matter-centered and uncertain in nature, Jeevan Vidya is human-centered and deterministic in nature. Since spiritualism and science have failed to universally satisfy the quest for knowledge for human beings in a manner which could result in a just human order, there was a need to look beyond these two major streams of thinking which have guided human beings so far on earth. The traditional systems of education used religion or spiritualism as their philosophical basis and most of the modern education systems use science as their philosophical basis. Some people have also attempted to combine the two. However, since there is a basic contradiction between the two streams over the concept of matter and consciousness, such attempts can lead nowhere. The inadequacies of education systems based on spiritualism, science or a combination of the two are there before us as proofs.

The needs of the material body are material in nature and are fulfilled by the material world. The need of the ‘jeevan’ or ‘chaitanya ’ are knowledge of the six distinct levels at which each individual has to live - the self, the body, the family, the society, the nature and the larger universe, in a manner so that a way of living could be evolved which will bring all the above-mentioned six levels in harmony. These two set of needs can be described as needs of ‘samajikta’ and ‘swawalamban.’ Unlike other living beings on earth, the human beings have to spend a considerable amount of time during the early phase of their life learning how to fulfill these two set of needs. This is the most important characteristic of human beings which makes them different from other living beings. And it is the responsibility of the education system and the previous generation to ensure that this is easily made accessible to all their children.

Hence the objective of our education system is two fold:
Samajikta – to help the individual acquire a knowledge of the self, the body, the family, the society, the nature and the larger universe and to know how to live at these different levels so that there is harmony among all the levels.
1. Swawalamban – to equip the individual with skills which will allow him/her to fulfill all the material needs of his/her family.
Only when these objectives have been achieved in the case of all human beings can we say that the process of education is complete. And each individual would have to be part of it if we would like to see a manviya vyavastha (just human order) established on this earth.

Every individual who will complete the above-mentioned process of education will become knowledgeable. Knowledgeable individuals will be happy. A happy individual will be a source of happiness for others. This is also how we may verify that the process has actually worked.
Nature of the Education System
The education programme will essentially consist of imparting the knowledge of the self, the body, the family, the society, the nature and the larger universe. This knowledge will help the individual to find a single way of living which will ensure that there is a positive effect on all the six levels at which an individual has to live and there is harmony among different levels of living. Lack of such a knowledge is the biggest challenge facing the human kind.

The objective of the education system is to fulfill the above-mentioned two set of needs for everybody. Every individual will have to go through this process. The process of education is complete only when each individual fulfills the two objectives. Hence there is no question of carrying out any examination as part of this education process to determine who succeeded and who did not. The larger objective requires that everybody has to succeed. Otherwise we’ll continue to live in disorder.

The nature of the education process is such that different individuals may take different periods of time to complete it according to their aptitudes and inclinations. Hence it cannot be mass education process like we have today where the educational institutions resemble factories producing some brand of products. The educational process will have to be tailor made for each student and individual interaction of teacher and student will be required. Each individual will develop according to his/her talent and personality.

Since the learning process is individual centered there is no need for competition or comparison between individuals. Competition is seen as a much touted virtue in modern society. We have come to believe that it is an integral part of human life and cannot imagine an education system without competition. Some go as far as to say that it is natural. However, the fact of matter is that we solve each of our real life problems by seeking cooperation from fellow human beings. In normal routine living we like to be polite, courteous and cooperative towards our fellow human beings. In most of our human dealings we like to see trust established. When we meet a new person we start out by having trust in him/her and we expect the same from him/her. In fact if we don’t have trust in the fellow human beings with whom we live and work it’ll become very difficult for us to live. It can make us schizophrenic or even mad. So why do we introduce the artificial element of competition in our education process? It has already done lot damage to human society. The natural human value with which a child is born is trust and we should build upon it to achieve the desired objective of creating a just human order. To excel we don’t need competition. The natural motivation to excel is the objective of making this world a better place for everybody in which we can live as happy individuals. Most of the inventions and discoveries or philosophies which were meant for the benefit of human kind did not come out of any competitive process, for nobody can stop geniuses, innovators, thinkers or well meaning persons. However, destructive things like nuclear weapons, fundamentalist ideologies and purely profit driven but otherwise destructive technologies have come out of competition. It has been one of the most worst crimes perpetrated on human beings to have propagated the idea that ‘competition ensures quality.’ It is desire to live mutually satisfying human relationships that ensures quality of life and not competition. ‘Competition ensures quality’ works only in the capitalistic market framework and only so long as the going is good. If profits go down then we can easily see people indulging in corrupt practices and adulteration.

Hence, the education system should be totally free of any punishment and reward methods. Because education, in the above-mentioned sense and not in the narrow sense of what we mean by it today, is an universal need we cannot discourage anybody from trying to complete that journey. Moreover, as we would like to see everybody accomplish the two objectives to fulfill their needs, it doesn’t make sense to selectively promote some over the rest. In fact, the accusation against the modern education system is that it only filters out the creamy layer and dumps the rest, which is a dominating percentage of people who decide to go to school. Obviously such an unjust system cannot be allowed to go on if the larger objective is to establish a manviya vyavastha , a system which will meet the needs of every individual of any family or community. The present education system in not fulfilling these needs and in fact is forcing the individuals to move away from such a direction by creating more unemployment and propagating values which are very damaging to our family and social fabric.
The Vision of a Just Society
The most important contribution of Jeevn Vidya is the concept of jeevan or chaitanya as a distinct entity and the fact that the satisfaction of needs of the material body and that of jeevan require two different programmes. The satisfaction of one set of needs does not depend on or guarantee satisfaction of the other set of needs. To be able to live in relationships which are source of perennial happiness is a manifestation of complete understanding which fulfills the need of jeevan. At the level of society such relationships would reflect in form of a ‘Parivar Mulak Gram Swarajya Vyavastha ’ (Family-based System of Village Self-reliance). Such a system will ensure that the systems of education, health, production, exchange (of material items) and justice are in place in a community which results in the creation of a just human order. Each family will be engaged in some primary production processes (in the areas of food, clothing, housing, transportation and telecommunication). The community members will be responsible for the management of these systems as well on a voluntary basis. This is to say that the ‘service’ sector of economy will perform those duties with a sense of true service (without any expectation of financial remuneration). Nobody will have to work for wages or trade (act as middleman) for earning their livelihood. There will be no profit oriented market. Neither will there be any currency. However, every product will be assigned a ‘labour value’ upholding the value of equity. Every human being’s work will be treated equally and the important thing would be to fulfill everybody’s needs. Fulfillment of needs will the basis of exchange of material items among different families rather than any arbitrarily decided value which may widen the material prosperity level gap. In a just and equitable society there will be no need for accumulation because people will derive their sense of security from happy and mutually satisfying relationships rather then their material wealth. The production will be in response to the five sets of above-mentioned basic material needs of human beings. An elaborate system of exchange supported by modern transportation and telecommunication facilities will take care of all the needs of all human beings.

It can be visualized that the basic needs like food, clothing and housing can be taken care of at the local level. But for items more sophisticated and requiring modern technological inputs and industrial scale activity, experts from different villages will be identified and put together as a team to set up the entire process of production and when they would have produced the required number of items and their spare parts necessary, they will dismantle the operation and go back to living with their families in their native villages. All these personnel will work as volunteers with their families taking care of their basic needs while they are assembled at a special location for a well defined purpose.

There will be a well defined system of decentralized (village based) administrative system to manage all the five systems of education, health, production, exchange and justice or to take care of any other matter concerned with human life at any of the levels. A body at the village level comprising of a member from each family will be the most basic and important executive decision making body. There will be no political parties nor any bureaucracy. The people will directly run their systems and interlink so that a smooth bottom-up hierarchy from the village level to the world level is in place. The concept of nation state will become redundant in such a system. There will be no need for regularly collecting taxes. The people from the village level will send the resources up at a higher level only in response to specific and agreed upon needs. Otherwise they will manage their systems locally based on local resources.
The process of education would produce individuals who are more inclined towards working towards establishment of such a just human order. Human values, like trust, respect, love, would have to be inculcated which will form the basis of all human relationships and skills would have to be taught which will make individuals capable of taking care of the material needs of their families.


Social Activist, affiliated with ASHA, Contact: A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016, U.P., India
Lucknow. Ph.D. in Mechincal Engineering from Univeristy of California, Berkeley in 1992. (Dissertation: Control of Uncertain Dynamical Systems.)













Improving The Effectiveness of Present Education System
(A critique of the modern education system)
Dr. Sandeep Pandey*

The process of education is considered so important in our society that no parents, who can afford it, can imagine having their children go uneducated. It has become such an integral part of our lives that for most people, completing the process of education appears to be a matter of habit. Others, who have so far remained outside this process, are now being covered by the literacy programmes of the government and various non-governmental organizations. Extending the privilege to everybody in the country seems to be a top priority for various governments representing political thought of different shades. Those outside the education system see it as a desirable thing and are quite eager to take advantage of the opportunity offered to them. But, why exactly is education so indispensable?
The need for such an examination arises because everything does not seem to be going alright with the education system. The ground reality is that in most of the schools and colleges of India, students, teachers and administrators are apathetic towards the process of education, fraudulent ways are beings adopted to complete the process and a large number of educated youth find themselves without jobs. It is quite anomalous that when the people, government and those involved in implementing it, consider the education to be a desirable thing, they choose to ignore the real state of affairs on ground. Policy makers, politicians, social activists and education experts are seen taking idealist positions when talking about education, most of the time. Do they really want to continue and expand the existing education system in its present form? Besides the degeneration of the process, education as an activity seems to be going on without any direction.
The purpose of education
More precisely, the perceived goal of education to make the individual and the society 'better' in some qualitative sense, seems to missing in its current form. In our rush to get everybody educated, we do not consider it important to ask ourselves why do we need education?
An idealist notion about the necessity of education has been taken for granted. If fact this notion has been so strongly developed that we are taught to overlook the shortcomings in the implementation of this activity. Both independent groups, who have chosen to work in the field of education, and expert committees have only suggested ways of improving the effectiveness of present education system without addressing themselves to the more basic issues of the purpose of the entire activity. Such people often choose to ignore the disturbing trends, mentioned above, associated with the education system.
Most of the people will refuse to link the malaise in the system to the basic nature of the system itself, considering it to be a disorder which could be taken care of by implementing a proper machinery. Such assumptions need to be questioned. In this article we will present an analysis of the present education system, which will raise questions at such basic levels. When so much resources and the prime time of our children and youth are being given over to the education system, we as a society need to find out the achievement of this system in real terms. However, in this evaluation one must be prepared to dispense with the assumption that the modern education system, or some close variant of it, is absolutely indispensable, for on close examination this kind of education system itself appears to be at fault. The present article will restrict itself to being a critique of the modern education system and will highlight its inadequacies. The solution in the form of a new concept of education derived from a newly established philosophy, Sah Astitwawad Darshan, of Nagaraj Sharma of Amarkantak, will be the subject of a future article. The concept of education based on this philosophy offers the possibility of establishment of a just human order.
Let us first take a look at why people perceive education to be a desirable thing. When several groups of people in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh were asked as to why they felt the need of education, the answers fell in broadly three categories. The most common answer was that education makes people progressive in some sense and is necessary for the advancement of a civilized society. Next, people thought that it imparts knowledge. Lastly, very few people admitted, and that too quite hesitatingly, that it provides employment opportunities. It is interesting that educated people in formal conversation find it improper to voice the most popularly held view among the people that education opens up more job opportunities. It is probably a sign of their being 'civilized', which is quoted as the most important reason for getting educated. We will take up the issues of what people mean when they say that education makes one civilized or imparts knowledge, later.
Education and Job Opportunities
First we will look at the notion of education opening up job opportunities. It turns out that when parents send their children to school they are essentially seeking a 'secure future' for them, which basically means that their children upon getting educated would become eligible for salaried jobs. Even if they do not realize it, the societal norm which compels them to have their children go to school is guided by the same motivation. In fact, this pressure is so great that no parent can even think of doing otherwise. Considering that modern education system incurs some expenditure on the part of parents, it can easily be identified as a middle and upward class activity. The roots of our education system are in the Imperial days, where it was essentially meant to produce a class of people who would assist the British in running the administration of this country.
Even today the education system continues to serve the same function.
It produces a salaried middle class which acts as an appendage to the ruling class and helps keep a primarily coercive administrative system in place. Since the nature of such jobs is essentially of clerical type and there is almost no scope to exercise an individual's creativity. Most people, even those possessing highest of academic qualifications, cannot derive satisfaction out of their jobs. To compensate for their unproductive nature of jobs they have to be paid higher wages than can be earned otherwise. This creates an economic gap between the salaried class and the class of people who depend on their hard labour and often engaged in production activities which sustain the economy. It is primarily this high salary level accompanied by the associated proximity to ruling classes which becomes the motivating factor for any parents taking a decision to get their children educated.
Since the education system is also designed to produce merely a 'clerical' class, upon the completion of their education programmes the youth seek fixed salary and low risk secure jobs. The top priority is often government jobs because there is remote possibility of getting thrown out of them, in addition to other financial and material benefits offered by them. However, the number of such salaried jobs is limited. In fact the number of salaried jobs which are primarily of clerical nature cannot exceed a certain limit because a large segment of the population would be needed outside it, in the primary and secondary sectors of economy, which incidentally also happen to be the source of income for governments from where salaries are generated. Hence, there is a practical restraint on the number of people who can be 'benefitted' by the present education system.
To present the idea of education in its current form as a desirable thing and involving large masses of people in it through literacy programmes, thereby making them aspirants in a limited (salaried) job market, is an irresponsible behaviour. Even though it could be argued that economic liberalization programmes are creating more job opportunities, the number of people receiving education and going without a job is growing at a faster rate. Experience of working in the Ballia district shows that a large number of youth actually fail to make it to the job system. The education system with its urban and elitist bias puts the students from rural and semi-rural background in a disadvantaged position to begin with. Since it is basically a job-oriented education system where people are prepared for subordinate roles, the process of training need not maintain very high standards of excellence. In fact, the general quality of education in this country is very mediocre and at a number of places the whole exercise has been reduced to a farce.
Since what is needed to demonstrate when applying for a job is the certificate and not actual competence, people have devised ways of completing the process of obtaining the certificates without actually putting in the hard work to go through the entire exercise involved in the process of education. The students, parents, teachers, other staff and education department administrators, for example, have evolved a system in Ballia district where almost all the students clear their high school and intermediate examinations, conducted by the U.P. Board, by mass- scale malpractices. This method suits everybody as the administrators and teachers get financially benefitted, students pass their examinations and parents do not mind spending an extra sum to see their children obtain the certificates without wasting too much of their time. This system enjoys full political patronage and has over aperiod of roughly two decades obtained social acceptability. So much so that anybody not resorting to cheating in the examinations would be considered an anomaly.
Since examinations can now be passed without a rigorous program of studies, the entire process of classroom teaching has been short circuited. The teachers are content drawing their salaries. As the number of people possessing certificates, diplomas and degrees has gone up, so has the competition for jobs and the number of unemployed. Since the education system prepares a job mentality in people, a person is called unemployed if he/she is not in a salaried job.
The concept of employment after education leaves out a host of other activities which are absolutely necessary for the running of our economy. A lot of people who fall in the category of unemployed, if they had not gone through the education system, they would probably be engaged in some fruitful production activity. It is a well known fact that our education system creates a mind-set which makes people move away from the basic production processes in the economy. In this sense the problem of 'unemployment' has been merely a creation of our education system. In fact, the education system can be blamed for ruining the best years of our youth, whether unsuccessful or successful in getting a job.
In this light, demands of groups such as AISA, of education and employment for everybody, where by education they mean only the present form of education and by employment they mean the commonly held view of salaried jobs, are meaningless. They are again guided by the same idealist notion that education is a desirable thing for everybody, completely ignoring the ground realities. Considering that majority of our people live in villages, townships and small cities, they are deprived of the fruits of modern education system and a majority of educated youth in this country actually go without a job.
Contrary to the popular opinion that education opens up more job opportunities, it rewards only a minuscule percentage of the population, mostly coming from socio-economically privileged groups. It is only the dream of getting these small number of high salaried coveted jobs that has sustained the view that education opens up more job opportunities. If we consider the hard reality, education system today makes many more people jobless than it is able to provide jobs to. In fact, the process of education is so lop-sided and strangulating that it saps the person of all his/her imagination and enthusiasm making him/her unfit for any other work. The state of unemployment in Ballia is such that people holding even Bachelor's and Master's degrees are forced to take up teaching jobs in privately run primary and middle level schools for a meagre Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 per month. Even a daily wage worker, involved in manual work can earn two or three times more. This crippling effect can only lead to frustration among the people who are unfortunate enough not to secure a job. The government and political parties only make the situation worse by creating an illusion that they can create more jobs. They only fuel the rat race of people going through the education system and then contending for jobs.
If we are to channelize the energy of our youth for constructive activity in society then we work to dispel the notion that education opens up more job opportunities. The sooner we agree to examine the myth that the present education system is a desirable thing, the better it would be for our society. A completely new form of education system with a different purpose altogether, has to be worked out for creating a healthy society. However, this will not be the subject of present article. Here, it is merely sufficient to mention that various efforts which have been carried out to make the modern education system more effective have failed to create an impact. These efforts either in the form of individual experts, independent self-motivated innovative groups or expert committees have not questioned the basis of the process of education. Most of them have concerned themselves with techniques and strategies rather than taking up the issue at a philosophical level.
For example, the vocational training programmes, including the ITIs, failed to motivate the youth to give up their salaried job mind set, because they were designed to merely supplement the modern education system. Such has been the fate of all innovative efforts. When they were incorporated in the education system, their role was limited to only a marginal one. Another example is the S.U.P.W., which was introduced in the C.B.S.E. syllabus. Kishore Bharati in Hoshangabad, working with the objective of inculcating scientific temper through education, was successful in getting books designed by it introduced in the state curriculum but was unsuccessful in qualitatively influencing either the process of education or lives of people in general.
So long as the primary function of our education system continues to be serving the interests of the ruling class, no change can be expected to be brought about by it. Fortunately we are forced to re- examine our education system because, firstly, it is failing to provide jobs to everybody, and, secondly, to the people it has provided jobs, it is failing to provide satisfaction. In any case, the myth that education opens up more job opportunities needs to be dispensed with.
Does education make individuals progressive?
Next let us come to the aspect of education which makes an individual progressive in some sense. The state always projects education as necessary for the progress of society when pushing its literacy programmes. People are made to believe through the state run media that education has the potential for providing solutions to a number of society's problems. There is so much brainwashing done that lot of educated people grow up with the illusion that they are more civilized in some sense that the illiterate people. It is not very difficult to detect the condescending attitude that the educated people develop towards the less educated or uneducated people.
However, when several groups of people, including school teachers and college students from Delhi, Kanpur and Ballia were questioned on exactly how they were advanced compared to people who did not get a chance to go to school, people were at a loss to come up with convincing answers. Because of education they had acquired the skills of reading and writing, but other people in the society possessed some other skills which were in no way less valuable. In fact, skills like farming, cloth making and house building, more basic to our living, the educated people were completely unfamiliar with. What is a part of living for most of the people in the country and where they spend a major part of their time is reduced in the form of mere commodities which the educated people learn to buy in the market in exchange for money earned as part of their salaries. This is probably a basic difference between the educated and uneducated people. However, whether this is a sign of progress has become a debatable issue now.
The educated people would readily agree that inspite of enjoying more material comforts they do not think that they have become any more happy than the uneducated people. Also, education does not make any person a better human being. The educated people are not any more sensitive or sympathetic towards other human beings. Neither are they any more honest or responsible. Education does not free a person of superstition or blind belief in hypothetical concepts of super natural powers. An educated person is seen to be as much of a fatalist as an uneducated one. People possessing highest degrees in sciences are seen to behave in highly irrational and inexplicable ways. A document published when the Kishore Bharati experiment was wound up, points out that scientific rational way of thinking evaporates when economic and political interests of the people come in their way. Hence upon an honest evaluation it turns out that qualitatively there is not much of a difference between the educated and the uneducated people.
Most of the people with whom it was discussed agreed with this conclusion. Then, in what way they thought they were more civilized left them thinking.
People agree that material advancement is not the only aspect of progress. In fact, it is the less important part of it. Most of the people were of the opinion that practice of human values, improvement on human relationships and a just order in society constituted real progress and those are the things they actually meant when using the notion of 'civilized' society. Unfortunately we have not moved ahead in that direction, and although the idea of education was conceived precisely for this purpose, we have so far not been able to develop the form of education, necessary to fulfil this objective. The modern education system is simply not designed to serve this purpose. All it does is only legitimizes material growth in the name of development. Modern science as an ideology, which has chosen to confine itself to only the study of matter, having gotten the support of the ruling classes, has exercised its hegemony through the modern education system to promote a material-centered thinking. This is reflected in the personal aspirations of a modern educated man as well as the development programmes of any modern state. However, that this is only a lop-sided view is reflected in the concerns of the people. Thus, the popular belief that education represents some kind of progress does not stand a deeper inquiry.
Misinterpreted Notion
Finally, we will take up the most profound and also the most misinterpreted notion of education as a means to seek 'knowledge'. The tradition of learning has always been associated with seeking of knowledge. However, what constitutes knowledge is highly debatable because before the advent of modern education system in this country knowledge was viewed only in mystical terms. Only a selected few with some special qualifications were eligible to acquire it. However, as the State patronage shifted from religion to science and a new education system was in place, more people were allowed access to the new 'knowledge'. Science was more successful than religion in penetrating different societies around the world and making itself more universally acceptable in the curricula of the education systems of the schools of the world. But it was soon discovered that it still remained pretty much in the hands of few experts. The 'spirit of enquiry', necessary for seeking 'knowledge', was in the domain of only those privileged few. Moreover, the direction of research was determined often by the state, which was funding the activity. The state had readily adopted the activity of science because it offered the possibility of vastly improved defence capabilities. Because of liberal state sponsorships, defence continues to occupy the interests of a majority of the scientists on earth today. In this light even the spirit of enquiry enjoyed by a few is restrained and the knowledge sought is with a very limited purpose. This explains why our programme of development is proceeding with an associated component of destruction.
Coming back to the education system in the era of science, what was designed for the majority of the people were skills and capsules of information necessary to sustain the efforts of the state. The science education in schools and colleges is no less dogmatic than the teachings of religion. What you can do in the name of science is clearly spelled out by the authorities, allowing no freedom for change even in enquiry. It obviously does not conform to the notion of science offering openness of thought and is certainly far removed from the concept of knowledge. It must be recognized very well that modern education system is not a programme of knowledge seeking even though it does maintain an illusion of that in the name of science. It basically consists of development of certain skills, like reading, writing, articulation, mathematics or giving out certain information through sciences and social sciences. It is a programme limited in terms of the content of curriculum and number of years required to complete it and can be completed by being successful in a definite type of examination.
The examinations, for which the skill of writing is necessary, can be passed by reproducing certain information or at the most by manipulation of this information. A person who is the product of modern education system and has completed most advanced of its programmes does not feel contended or knowledgeable enough to be able to provide answers to all queries relating to his/her specialization and certainly not comfortable answering the basic questions about life and existence in the realm of philosophy even though the education system may have honoured them with Doctor of Philosophy degrees. This is yet another proof of modern education system not being a knowledge seeking exercise. In fact, there appears to be a lot of confusion among people on what exactly is the nature of knowledge and the ways of going about acquiring it.
Most people are seen to use the term knowledge as a synonym for skills or information. Some people make it appear as something mystical, beyond the reach of ordinary people, and consider that knowledge or Truth can be obtained only through very specialized processes. However, such people are themselves not clear about the nature of knowledge or the way of obtaining it, as they have not experienced it themselves. Neither do they seem to have met anybody who has obtained knowledge. Hence, there is a lot of mystery about the mystical way. Like the first two popular beliefs about education, even the belief that education imparts some kind of knowledge appears to be a myth. While both the traditional and modern schools of thought use the term quite frequently, there appears to be no consensus or even clarity on its meaning. The Sah-Astitwawad Darshan has developed the concept of knowledge as a complete understanding of oneself and one's environment in relation to it, and furthermore, evolving a programme of living at the four stages of the self, the family, the society and nature, so that there is complete harmony among all the stages. The task of education is described as making people familiar with this entire concept. Under such a system the objective of education is determined as the realization of a just human order. This human centered thought identifies the two types of needs of human beings - material and human values - and offers a programme for the satisfaction of both. Education helps the human beings understanding these processes better and hence is more meaningful for life. This concept will be presented in detail in a separate article.
Conclusion
The purpose of the present article was only to point out the frailties of the modern education system and to show how some of the popularly held views about this system are merely myths, which are exposed on a closer examination. The education system is not serving any fruitful purpose in the society, except for keeping a handful of people in jobs. A larger objective of creating a healthy society, where all the needs of all human beings can be satisfied easily, is simply not on its agenda. The education system fails to provide intellectual satisfaction and hence a viable programme of living where mutually beneficial relationships can be established with other human beings, groups of people and with nature, which is necessary for the growth of society. As a result of the all round failure of our education system a need has been established for new thinking in this direction.
*Social Activist, affiliated with ASHA, A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016, U.P., India. Ph.D. in Mechincal Engineering from Univeristy of California, Berkeley in 1992


Learning in Villages Today: Remainders or Reminders?

Anuradha Joshi*

Despite the vicious onslaught of modernization, many of India’s villages still give us deep insights into what authentic learning societies could look like. Their indigenous belief systems, local knowledge systems and social relationships comprise diverse and rich learning spaces, rooted in and evolving with local culture and environment.

For the local people, their village societies offer opportunities for them to identify challenges and provide solutions, which are relevant to their local context and consistent with their values of interdependence, diversity, cooperation and collective participation.

Unfortunately, our Indian ‘educated’ people and educationists have been unable to think beyond the Western promise of schools and their own ‘expertise’ to understand these essential human values and how they manifest themselves in villages. Not only have they failed to see the rich learning opportunities that pervade all aspects of life in villages, but they have also actively contributed to the weakening of village learning societies. In the name of science, progress, poverty eradication, environmental awareness, fertilizers, medicine, rights of women and child, information technology, etc., they have marginalized and de-valued the rich knowledge systems, languages, relationships, media, etc. that local peoples possess. In the process, they have demoralized both individuals and whole communities.

For more than a decade now, we at SIDH, a not-for-profit organization, have been studying the effect of colonialism, development and modernization on rural areas of the unique Jaunpur district, in the newly-formed state of Uttaranchal. Because of its inaccessible location in the Central Himalayas, Jaunpur was excluded from most government welfare programs. As a result, it has been able to retain its traditional belief systems, values, knowledge systems and social structures for longer than most of India’s rural villages.

In the process of our research in Jaunpur, we have uncovered deep understandings of how parampara (dynamic living traditions) and people’s everyday activities offer rich spaces for learning and growing. Local people are not as ‘deprived’ or ‘backward’ as the Education for All campaign agenda and development institutions would have us believe. In this article, I will: 1) share some of the insights we have gained about people’s learning; 2) highlight what the impact of modernization and schooling has been on this village learning society; and 3) discuss what options exist to regenerate this village learning society.

Learning in Jaunpur: Structures, Rituals, Values, Knowledges

The major defect of the Educational for All campaign (and of the larger development industry) is its failure to recognize and respect the diversity of values, belief systems and contexts of the different villages it endeavors to ‘help’. The driving agenda of modernity asserts only one definition of progress and well-being: a purely capitalist framework that reduces humanity and the purpose of life to serving the State-Market. All human values and relationships are made subservient to the goals of profit and efficiency. This ‘universal’ agenda is forced on people all over the world and is used to evaluate and rank different communities. However, to understand the learning spaces of Jaunpur, it is important to understand how their context and worldview, their notions of progress and wellbeing, are quite different from those of modernity.

Agriculture and Joint Families: Traditional Notions of Wealth and Well-being Like many villages in India, Jaunpur relies on land, subsistence farming (maize is the staple crop), animals and produce. Traditionally, several families would live together, work the land together and share the food. This joint family system connected families to each other, to the land, and to animals. (Animals were actually considered part of the family. The death of a cow or even a goat was mourned by the whole village.) Individual well-being was dependent on cooperation and collective effort, and the community’s well-being depended on the land.

This was re-affirmed through traditional notions of wealth, which were based on grain, cereals, and agriculture, land, soil, and people. The people defined wealth, or samridhi, as something that exists in homes where there is enough to eat, where all family members love one another and look after their cattle. It is not surprising that physical effort was linked to wealth – the word kamai (earnings) is defined by the physical effort involved and is directly related to kama (work). Frequently heard expressions would include: “hum ghas kama kelate hain” (we earn grass/wood);
“hum khet ki kamai khate hain” (we eat off the earnings from the field); “hum dhan ke seth hain” (we are wealthy in rice); “hum anaj aur mitti ke seth hain” (we are wealthy in grain and fertile soil).1

In such an environment, there was little disparity in the housing, clothes and food of the people. At the same time, everyone also accepted the fact that each individual might possess different amounts of wealth. What was not acceptable was the flaunting of wealth or spending money on visible symbols of over-consumption. To make sense of Jaunpur’s peoples’ perspective towards Nature, agriculture and food (or anna), one must view these relationships as something beyond mere commercial activities. Food is more than just a commodity; it is prasad, a blessing bestowed upon people from both Nature and their own work and therefore is to be accepted with gratitude and humility. In this way, agriculture in the villages differs significantly from the industrial farming practices of today’s big agribusiness (where the idea of exploiting Nature for the highest profit prevails).

Identity and History: Storytelling and Folk Songs

Out of this deep relationship with the land emerge several diverse activities and traditions that reinforce a holistic sense of identity, community relationships and place. In Jaunpur, two powerful learning processes are storytelling and folk songs. Storytelling used to be a well-respected art in Jaunpur. Until a few years ago, it was a common sight to see a village elder sitting in the village chaur, late in the evening, surrounded by a group of children. He would encourage them to assist him in removing the corn from the cobs, while narrating popular folk tales that satisfied the children’s deep curiosity about nature and society. For instance, an elder would tell them how all was one in the original state and how the universe — earth and sky — was created from two eggs of the Sooni Garudi (the archetypal symbol of a pair of eagles). Another story describes how daags (witches) emerged: Man was one entity, but upon the request of the fairies, man was divided into spirit and matter, between God (sky) and woman (earth).
The fairies that desired man for their own needs were hence labeled daags. Similarly, a story about four brothers explains how the four castes were made. One day, four brothers found a dead cow. While three brothers refused to touch the corpse, the youngest brother obliged but was then ostracized from the family. Other origin stories illustrate the creation of man and of mountains and flat land.

Such stories are one of the most important wisdom frameworks in traditional communities, because they are clues to the spiritual potentialities of human life. They reiterate timeless truths and contribute to a sense of identity, place and continuity in relation to the cosmos. In this way, they reduce existential fear, insecurity and uncertainty from the lives of people. They also create much-needed spaces for people to collectively reflect upon issues of ethics and social justice — the rightness or wrongness of their actions and the actions of those around them.

Another learning space is found in Jaunpur’s folk songs, which narrate everything from the community’s historical events and personal tragedies to aspects surrounding nature. The women of Jaunpur sing ropni and other kinds of folk songs to lighten the burden of their work, particularly while doing the back-breaking job of transplanting rice. Usually, there are two themes running through alternate lines in every folk song. The first recalls a major event of either the recent or distant past. The second line, which rhymes with the first, offers detailed information on some important aspect of nature, such as the kind of grass which should be planted on the hill slopes, the names of leaves that have medicinal value, or the optimum distance between planting different varieties of rice. Embedded in these songs are individuals’ and collectives’ vast and detailed knowledge about agricultural practices and nature itself.

There are also songs about the various changes in a woman’s body during pregnancy, about mythological, social and historical events. These songs are critical not only for keeping communities’ histories alive, but also for providing spaces for women to express themselves and nurture their creativities.

Festivals: Collective Participation and Collective Good

In addition to storytelling and folk songs, there are numerous festivals that celebrate the link between community well-being and Nature. A good harvest is celebrated with gratitude towards the power that has created abundance in nature. Benediction or kripa is vital for survival, and most of the festival rites are associated with offerings of the new harvest to the local gods and goddesses. Each festival is related to a particular agricultural activity, which in turn is related to time, seasons and systems of measurement. As such, they link time, movement of the earth and shifting of the sun’s position with agriculture, food and health, and more broadly to peoples’ own faith, gratitude and ultimately happiness. For example, Sankranti in Jaunpur is celebrated on the first day of every month, according to the Hindu solar calendar. Sankranti corresponds to a change in the position of the sun and a change in the seasons.

The Sankrant of Makar, Kark and Vikhot (when the sun crosses the Tropic of Capricorn, Cancer and Equator respectively) are especially auspicious occasions. Such festival traditions both humble and empower community members, by celebrating forces greater than himself/herself and asking for their protection and guidance. They also provide excellent opportunities for people to heal and replenish different relationships. The festivals often involve much preparation and several rituals. Just as working the land requires collective effort, the festivals also call for everyone’s participation. On Phooldei, in the months of March/April, young girls put the first flowers on the threshold of every house in the village, for good luck throughout the year. During July/August, the men celebrate Poojav by lighting a lamp in the village temple and taking turns in keeping guard to ward off evil spirits. If things go wrong in the village (such as illness or tensions) then the people of the village collectively do Pooj, by offering prayers to appease the angry Dharti-Mata (Mother Earth). The rituals or prayers involved during these festivals are for the well-being of all the households in the village and never limited to the well-being of “me and my family alone.” The significant learning from these celebrations is their collective nature and generosity of spirit.

There are also many festivals, ceremonies and rituals that mark the different events of life: birth, marriage, and death. For such occasions, after the individual activities of bathing, cleaning homes and courtyards, and wearing clean or new clothes, food is shared with the rest of the community, especially the less fortunate. Thus, festivals are times to learn barkat, which literally means ‘plenty’, but also denotes ‘generosity of spirit’ and ‘social responsibility’, not simply towards the family but within the whole community. These festivals reaffirm the strong conviction that individual good can only result from collective good. Caste and Work in Traditional Societies. Another aspect of Jaunpur society worth noting is the function of caste and work as vibrant living spaces in traditional communities. In relation to the above discussion, it is important to recognize that most events and celebrations actively include members of all castes. Notably, festivals take place in the village center or chaur, as opposed to individual homes. And whether it is a festivity or a death ceremony, playing of the dhol by the bajgis (very low caste) is an absolute necessity on all occasions; their participation is as important as that of the pundit (highest caste). In fact, all ceremonies would be incomplete without the equal presence of both the Brahmin priest and the Harijan. Modern notions of the caste system (which today is almost synonymous with injustice and
untouchability) tend to overlook this interdependence.

It is also important to recognize how different capabilities and knowledge systems are associated with particular caste groups. One reason cited for the rise of a system of sub-castes and caste divisions was that guilds of workers tended to crystallize into groups by occupation (like chariot-makers, smiths, leather workers and the carpenters).

Each of these groups and sub-groups had their own language/vocabulary, measurement systems, science and sociology. Indeed, mastery of a craft was a source of pride and self-respect, as well as livelihood, for family members. Different kinds of work were respected for their contribution to the collective well-being of the village. Groups did not consider themselves inferior or superior to each other, so there was very little felt hierarchy. Each caste group had its own base of power, with control over its own political structures and its own means of production. The apprenticeship model of learning was used to retain and improve knowledges of crafts and to pass them down through generations; we can still see how this powerful form of human learning exists today with
pundits, soldiers, farmers, masons, weavers, and with craftsmen of sunar (gold), suthar (wood), kumhar (clay), luhar (iron), and chamar (leather). Although these groups became more or less hereditary over time, there is some evidence to indicate a level of fluidity and diversity in the system originally.2

Today, most of our ‘intellectuals’ are unaware of the origins or positive aspects of the caste system. They have been taught that it is inherently hierarchical and thus inferior, when compared with other so-called politically-correct Western ‘democratic’ systems. While it is true that certain injustices and distortions of the caste system have emerged and must be eradicated, it is also important to value the knowledge and wisdom unique to each of the caste groups, and the specific contexts in which this knowledge and wisdom are situated. Often, urban ‘educated’ people do not value these different contexts or diverse knowledge systems because of their own alienation from traditional society; because they have never been part of a group engaged in self-sufficient livelihoods where learning happens spontaneously and dynamically; and because they do not dignify physical work as a source of learning. They also have a tendency to over-generalize caste relationships, wrongly assuming that what they see in one village holds true for all villages in all parts of a place as diverse and complex as India.

In addition, our ‘intellectuals’ have little imagination to think beyond and little courage to struggle against the political and economic models of the West. They have not investigated the perverse relationship between the growth of industrialization and the decline of caste and sub-caste livelihoods. They seem to find it much easier (and more profitable) to bully and beat up their own indigenous structures using the tools and frameworks of Western academia. Moreover, people who believe in today’s dominant vision of progress cannot conceive of the possibility of non-hierarchical groups engaged in diverse livelihoods and living interdependently. They have become
conditioned in a system that ranks everyone according to the amount of income or capital they have, that forces people to violently compete against each other, and that perceives work with one’s hands to be dirty and menial. While the crises induced by modernization will be discussed in more detail below, the area of caste offers one example of how we might re-examine traditional systems, to recognize and re-incorporate their positive aspects while creatively addressing injustices and distortions.

To summarize, even in this brief description of the structure, activities and traditions in Jaunpur, one can catch a glimpse of the richness and diversity of learning that takes place in village learning societies. Most of these learning spaces and processes are centered around land, forest and agricultural practices, because these are the sources of collective well-being. These spaces and processes are authentic and relevant to Jaunpur’s peoples’ reality, to their daily lives. They are a source of pride and inner strength for individuals, and they also emphasize interdependence, intrinsic motivation and collective participation among members of community.

Before I am accused of romanticizing tradition, I should make a caveat here: It is important to understand the distinction between modernization and imitation/Westernization. If we define modern as “belonging to the present time,” then being ‘modern’ is inevitable and none of us have a choice in that matter. Being modern, in this regard, would mean living in the present and would entail correcting the distortions/injustices of traditional systems. But in countries with a colonial past, like India, we imitate the West without thinking and call it being ‘modern’. We forsake the continuity between traditional systems and modern times, instead of re-interpreting traditions in contemporary terms to improve the present. What I am calling for is not a rejection of the present but, in contrast, an appreciation of the remainders of the past and a conscious effort to make sense of what aspects of the past are still relevant and meaningful in society today.

The Impact of Development on Traditional Structures, Knowledges, and Values
Today, we can see why the British sought to alter the prevalent beliefs among local people, so that they would support the colonial system of rule. The British deliberately attempted to eradicate and/or to homogenize diverse local systems and beliefs into one centralized system, because they understood quite clearly that control over diverse local systems and beliefs was necessary to empower the colonizer. Though the British introduced an alien set of beliefs that insisted we were backward, deprived, sick, and full of superstitions, after ‘Independence’, the Modern Indian has carried forward in this direction. His/her efforts are aided by Development agencies, NGOs, or by campaigns such as Education for All (EFA), who have all adopted as their mission to “reach the un-reached”. Such rhetoric bears an uncanny resemblance to the British expansion of and justification for colonization and, when more deeply analyzed, reveals more of the same “West is best” propaganda that has existed for centuries. In this section, I explore two key processes which have greatly weakened village learning societies’ capacities to critically self-assess and regenerate themselves and to respond to new globally-backed forces of colonization and exploitation: schooling and the global economy.

Creating a Class of ‘Educated’ Dysfunctional Parasites

The structures, values and beliefs that are imposed and glamorized by development schemes, modern schooling, the economy, and the global media stand in stark contrast to the structures, values, and beliefs of traditional communities like Jaunpur. For example, whereas the traditions of storytelling, folk songs, festivals, and work were all sources of and spaces for learning and understanding identity, place and history, today schooling is presented as the best and only source of knowledge. Worse, the importance of identity, place and history (and their synthesis into shared wisdom) is fundamentally ignored and purposefully negated by schooling. Young people are taught to be ashamed of their village’s low literacy rates and its lack of monetary wealth, modern conveniences, or infrastructure.

To progress in the system, schooled children must submit to being alienated from all that has been sacred to them, all that had helped them survive and grow: their beliefs, their family systems, their land, their livelihoods and lifestyles. Schooling demands the acquisition of information and values that are completely irrelevant, meaningless and often demeaning to people’s lives. Abstract school subjects and values, such as competition, selfishness and domination over others, have been presented (and accepted) as more valuable than the diverse knowledge systems, skills, languages, bonds and capabilities of community members, primarily because it is promised that school will lead to job opportunities in the government or in a private corporation. As one young schooled man in Jaunpur commented, “Earlier there were no alternatives and choices. With education, one has choices.”3
However, several studies show that these choices are an illusion, that the only ‘choice’ awaiting the ‘educated’ youth is unemployment.4 The present education system fuels the socially and economically destructive practice of flooding one small village with a disproportionate number of ‘educated’ but unemployed (and unemployable) youth, or with innumerable tailors and electricians from vocational training centers who have very little creativity or adaptability. Ironically, it seems youth would rather be unemployed than work in the fields or learn the crafts or skills of their families. This dilemma is an extension of the effects of the colonial education system, of which Gandhiji once commented: “We see the children of the mason, the iron monger, carpenter, tailor, cobbler and of other occupations attending schools. But after completing their education, instead of improving the quality of their traditional occupation, they look down upon it as inferior work and abandon it altogether.”

Furthermore, the youth return to their communities after their education, no longer able to relate to the traditions and ceremonies. For example, it used to be that each day began and ended in Jaunpur with the sound of the Namti (drums) to remind people to be grateful to the gods. Now this art is dying out, as the drummers grow older and their children are not interested in carrying on the tradition. As one village elder remarked, “The young have found new festivals: the market and the television.”5 Unfortunately, these new festivals do little to strengthen local people’s imagination and self-esteem, much less their bonds with one another. These unemployed and alienated youth have very little regard for the village worldview/way of life or village elders. For this reason, they have placed a tremendous strain on village life.

Breaking Joint Family Structures
Similarly, whereas the traditional conceptions of well-being were directly related to the land and community relationships, the modern economy insists that wealth is based on money and jobs in the government or companies. Such beliefs have led to the break down of traditional family and community structures. Buying into the myth that they will be better off and ‘wealthier’ by abandoning agricultural occupations and entering the formal sector, joint families split up into nuclear families. As one village member during SIDH’s study on joint families, “I too want to do less work and earn more money.”6 The emphasis in modern society on individualism, competition and greed exacerbates this myth. This again contrasts with traditional values that emphasize the importance of collective effort and cooperation. Often, families experience tension and discord, jealousy and bitterness, due to the perceived superiority of being educated and having a job, versus working in the fields. Today, further pressure has been placed on the family structure and relationships by the increasing out-migration of men and women from the rural areas to urban centers.

Although many in Jaunpur have been taught to believe that a nuclear family has more opportunities and thus more upward mobility, what SIDH’s studies have shown is that the overwhelming majority of nuclear families are failing to meet their basic needs. In fact, dependence on the Market and State leaves nuclear families more impoverished. As one young child remarked, “Every time a joint family breaks up, the shopkeepers get richer and people get poorer, because so many things have to be bought again, like houses and beds and pots and pans and TV sets.” A 40-year-old man, who recently split from his joint family to form a nuclear family, confirmed this view: “When we were one family, we needed fewer things. When we get divided, we need to buy new tools, new vessels and another set of oxen.” As one village elder remarked, “Aajkal harkat hai – par barkat nahin” (There is a lot of movement going on today but not plenty for all).

SIDH also found in its study that many nuclear family members, who had taken the initiative to break up from their joint families, regretted having done so. Several women expressed that they thought becoming a nuclear family would mean better food, better clothes and better schools for their children. But in fact, they are finding the workload of a nuclear family overwhelming. As one 35-year-old woman said, “I thought I will do what I please, but I have to do all the work alone. Where is the time and energy to think about myself and my wishes?” Daughters, in particular, bear a large part of the burden of excessive workload in nuclear families, since they do not have other female family members to share it with. Now that this is evident, most women have expressed the desire to marry their daughters into joint families, “because they are not overworked”. Several children of the nuclear families stated, “Children from joint families are rich. They have more milk. They have more grain.” An elderly man commented, “The joint family is a matter of pride for the gaon ki shaan (village), but a nuclear family is considered selfish and lives only for its own shaan-shaukat (pleasure).”

Looking Towards the Future

One can see the incredible challenges ahead: to undo the damage created by modern systems and institutions, which do not acknowledge holistic learning spaces; to recover the lost value systems indigenous to our cultures, which have been steadily eroded; to regenerate rural communities and our dying farmers and artisans; and to counter consumer culture. The prevailing education system of post-colonial India has very consciously sought to create highly self-centered individuals, who will easily fall prey to the Market economy and all the other maladies of the West that stem from heightened individualism and consumption. As Sharma and Sharma (1999) say, the problem lies in “the need of an educated person to seek individual autonomy, which though quite in tune with contemporary democratic ideology, clashes with the cultural ethos of ‘family first’.”

These challenges are an opportunity for rediscovering and re-valuing the knowledge systems of our traditional societies — its folk tales, folk songs, local beliefs and practices, festivals and sanskars, systems of agriculture and economics, and understandings of governance and social justice. I should make it clear here that I am not advocating a re-valuing of traditional systems just because ‘old is gold’; nor am I trying to over-simplify the debates between tradition/modernity. Rather, I feel that we need to relate ourselves to the present, not by imitating the West, but by (1) carefully examining and critically evaluating our traditional knowledge and value systems, and (2) by correcting their distortions and re-creating relevant systems to suit our local cultural contexts. This is a critical agenda for learning societies if they are to have any relevance for the people of India.

Furthermore, I believe that it is important for the education system to change, to make it conducive for an individual to live with real integrity and real dignity. Writing articles, having seminars, youth camps, etc., are some ways to start serious discussions about the problems of modern education. As discussed above, the local social, economic, political context that surrounds schools is very significant. This context has to be strengthened in order to undermine and subvert the current education model. We also need to explode the myths propagated by the modern education system. The differences between peoples’ beliefs and their experiences have created a lot of confusion and paralysis. For example:

* The belief is that schooling provides good jobs, but the experience is that unemployment has increased.
* The belief is that jobs provide better opportunities for children, but experience shows that children cannot even manage to sustain themselves in their fruitless wait for a job (the literate children refuse to work in the fields).
* The belief is that a job can earn more money than working in the fields, but the experience shows that cash crops periodically yield more income than annual job salaries.
* The belief is that schooling is the best and only source of education, but experience is that ‘the literate person is scheming and corrupt’; ‘the rural literate fits in a city and an urban literate fits abroad’; ‘the literate does less work and earns more money’; ‘we are sending our children to schools so that they do not get fooled by the literate people’.

At the same time these contradictions create a vibrant opportunity for new thinking and action. In SIDH, we are working to open up dialogues from these conflicting gaps between beliefs and experiences. Some of our own efforts to regenerate and re-value the learning spaces of traditional communities include: conducting research on changing attitudes towards physical labor and on changing attitudes toward traditional occupations; introducing agriculture as a major part of the SIDH curriculum; starting a handloom, bakery, brick making, electrical, plumbing maintenance and repair units; studying the historical evolution of sub-castes and re-valuing their knowledge systems; and introducing the concept of trusteeship, autonomy, and interdependence among the youth. The various programs of SIDH, such as Sanjeevani, a year-long residential program for youth, further seek to accomplish this agenda of revitalizing different aspects of village life. The objectives of Sanjeevani are as follows:
- to generate a sense of self-confidence and self esteem in the youth;
- to make the youth aware of the limitations/contradictions of the present system and help them make realistic choices;
- to challenge their existing thought patterns and beliefs so as to make them receptive to new ideas;
- to improve their analytical and decision making skills;
- to encourage them to take leadership roles in personal and public life;
- to train them in the basic principles of business and management so that they can become self-employed.
The students of Sanjeevani are rural youth between 17-25 years of age. One third of the curriculum is agriculture which involves physical labor (working in the fields), the rest is divided in upgrading their literacy skills (including computer literacy) and also political thought and contemporary issues. They are also given support to complete their formal studies. However, the primary focus is a shift in attitudes. We work towards making the youth confident and responsible so that they can look after themselves and their families. This is not as difficult as they imagine, because material needs are not unlimited (as projected by the global market). Above all, we try to make them realize why and how they are being manipulated to believe that the key to happiness is the acquisition of consumer goods. The greatest challenge we face is sustaining the new learnings within the students once they go back to their old surroundings. One year is too short a time to make their beliefs strong enough to resist persistent attacks from parents and peers about upward mobility, and there is little support outside the Sanjeevani course to counter the dominant consumer culture. But we hope, equipped with critical perspectives and skills, the youth of Jaunpur will be able to work on regenerating learning societies.

Today’s Development schemes, and particularly the EFA infrastructure, continue to suppress the diversity of local communities, and reinforce feelings of inferiority/superiority. It is urgent that we, the middle class, rethink the Modern worldview we have embraced – for we are the main agents destroying village learning societies in India. In the last 50 years, we have been engulfed by a firm message from our ‘modernizers’, that we have been left behind in some process of Development, whose rules are being defined by those who are (at best) ignorant and (at worst) contemptuous of us. We need to empathize with the struggle facing the majority of our people. This calls for us to first regain our faith in ourselves by re-examining our history and the options and choices before us. The work of people like Gandhi and Dharampal are excellent starting points.7 It also requires that we regain our faith that happiness does not result from accumulating comfort or goods but from loving, trusting and giving. To begin to do so, we can draw from our rich spiritual traditions, whether it is a meditation technique like Vipassana; social movements like Swadhyaya; or a holistic framework (shastra) of education like Jeevan Vidya.8

Endnotes
1 The Child and the Family: A Study of the Impact of Family Structure upon Children in Rural Uttaranchal, 2001.
2 For more information, see S.P. Dabral’s Tehri Garhwal Rajya ka Itihas, published by Vir Gatha Prakashan, Dogra, Garhwal in 2032 Vikram Samvat and Gerald D. Berreman’s Hindus of the Himalayas, published by Oxford India Paperbacks in 1997.
3 The Child and the Family: A Study of the Impact of Family Structure upon Children in Rural Uttaranchal, 2001.
4 See K.P. Kannan, “Political Economy of Labor and Development in Kerala,” in Economic and Political Weekly (Vol. 33, No. 52, 1998) for more information.
5 The Vital Connection: A Study of Beliefs and Practices of Jaunpur-Tehri Garhwal, 2000 (unpublished).
6 This quote, and the others that appear in this section, are from The Child and the Family: A Study of the Impact of Family Structure upon Children in Rural Uttaranchal, 2001.
7 See The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi: Batiala House, 1973) and Dharampal’s Collected Writings, recently released in five volumes by the Other India Press (Goa, 2000).
8 Vipassana is a Buddhist meditaion technique which trains the mind to observe without judgement by increased awareness.

This is done by observing the breath and sensations. Anapana or observation of the breath has been used with children. S.N. Goenka brought this technique from Burma to India. Swadhyaya is a social movement started by Dada or Pandurang Shastri in Gujarat and Maharashtra villages, and spread to several states today. It uses the Geeta as its inspiration but has applied it to overcome caste /class and gender distinctions. It has radically transformed the lives of villagers by creating wealth, equity, and happiness. Jeevan Vidya is formulated by Nagaraja Baba of Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh, it propounds the law of co-existence between space and being (which includes nature and man). It throws new light on the concepts of nyay (justice), dharm (religion), satya (truth) and explains the key to happiness.

REFERENCES:

SIDH. A Matter of Quality. Mussoorie: Sanshodhan, 1999.
_____. Myths, Legends, Folk-lore and Folk-songs from Jaunpur, Tehri Garhwal. Mussoorie: Sanshodhan, 1995 (unpublished).
_____. The Vital Connection: A Study of Beliefs and Practices of Jaunpur-Tehri Garhwal. Mussoorie: Sanshodhan, 2000 (unpublished).
_____. The Child and the Family: A Study of the Impact of Family Structure upon Children in Rural Uttaranchal. Mussoorie: Sanshodhan, 2001.
Sharma, N. and B. Sharma. “Children in Difficult Circumstances: Familial Correlates of Advantage while at Risk” in T.S. Saraswathi, ed. Culture, Socialisation and Human Development. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999.

*SIDH (Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas)







































Gender and the MDGs with reference to women as human

Smt. Sunita Pathak* and Dr. Surendra Pathak**

It was 8th September 2000, when 156 Heads of States or Governments gathered for Millennium Summit as 55th UN General Assembly Known as the Millennium Assembly. The Millennium Assembly issued a *Millennium Declaration1 that was a *statement of values, principles and objectives for the international agenda for next Century.1 The Declaration lay down time-bound and measurable goals for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. This Declaration was built on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. *The UN Secretariat issued an agenda for implementing these commitments,2 which focused on eight “Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)” to be achieved by the year 2015.3 The declaration lists the goals of using a gender analysis in all policies, programs, and institutions in order to assess differential impacts on men and women, and to end gender inequality. The practice of using an analysis explores the differential realities due to gender inequality. It is important to highlight the interconnectedness of women’s issues to all of the Millennium Development Goals.

In order to ensure this, the world realizes its potential to make poverty history. Significant progress must be made to ensure gender equality. Women disproportionately suffer from hunger, disease, environmental degradation and impoverishment.

In view of the criticisms, some of the annalists say that MDGs conveniently distorted the issue of poverty and ignored its causes and conditions. Limited resources of poor countries are being deflected to debt servicing. “MDGs systematically make semi-colonial and colonial countries more beholden to their imperialist patrons rather than promoting self-reliance through genuine national industrialization."4 The tendency of governments and the donors alike to “collapse gender-concerns within the wider category of poverty” tends to depoliticize the issue and masks the uneven distribution of power and resources within households. 5

The MDGs has outraged response of the feminist community, when the goal-3 of women’s sexual and reproductive rights was excluded from the MDGs. This is even more inexcusable given that women’s sexual and reproductive rights is not only a goal but a crucial target under goal-3 [women’s equality and empowerment], goal-4 [child mortality], goal-5 [maternal health] and goal-6 [combating HIV/AIDS]. The deliberate exclusion of women’s human rights and empowerment from the MDGs symbolizes that lies ahead for anyone who seriously seeks equality, equality and empowerment for women. “In fact, problem of the MDGs is their abstraction from the social, political and economic context in which they are to be implemented – the ‘political economy’ of the MDGs”. 6

Having outlined the gender critiques of the MDG three, to begin, let us first view the contents of Goal-3, its targets and indicators as shown in here. Indicators are Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education (9), Ratio of literate women to men, 15-24 years old (10), Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector (11), Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament (12) and the target to Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015. 7

Equality in education as a target for measuring progress towards gender equality and empowerment of women is justified but it is not sufficient to measure the achievement of this goal.8 It does not ensure that all girls are properly educated as well as the quality of that education can fully develop their capabilities. Even though education tends to provide women with an essential capability and has intrinsic value the goals of gender equality will not be attained if these women cannot have the opportunity to fully use that capability. As mentioned in indicator No. 9, ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education point out that enrolment and completion rates are more accurate indicators rather than ratio.

Indicator No. 10 “Ratio of Literate Women to Men 15-24 years old” is a good for women’s advancement but the quality of the literacy data can be questioned. Different countries measure literacy differently. Some of the countries collect literacy data by using sophisticated and comprehensive techniques while others do not provide the most basic information. The definition that “A person is literate if she or he has completed five or more years of schooling” is also criticized.

The indicator No. 11 has also received “several criticisms, according to UNIFEM 2000, women’s entry into waged and salary work in industry and services does not necessarily mean that they escape from subordination within their families. Moreover they are often subject to new forms of discrimination in the work place. At the same time as women’s share of paid employment in industry and services is rising, the rights associated with such employment are falling”. 9

It can be concluded that even if statistical data shows that the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector is rising and therefore fulfils the indicator of MDG Number Three, in reality, it does not necessarily mean that there is an actual upliftment in the quality of life of these women and their well-being.

The Critique of Indicator 12 “Proportion of Seats Held by Women in National Parliament”, Women members of parliament are expected to increase the voice of feminism in the national legislature. As the elected representatives of the people in their respective constituencies, they are expected to further the cause for womankind’s welfare and well-being. This may be the general expected pattern but is it necessarily the reality? Are most women parliamentarians sensitive to gender issues and can promote a gender equality legislative agenda? 10

Gender is used to refer to proposed social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities. Gender explicitly excludes reference to biological differences, to focus on cultural differences.11 Gender refers to the social differences and relations between men and women but gender does not replace the term sex (biological differences). Gender is used to analyze the roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities and needs of human. It learned behaviors in a society, community and social group. Their conditions, activities, tasks and responsibilities are perceived as male or female. Its roles are affected by age, class, race, ethnicity and religion, and by the geographical, economic and political environment.
Gender difference is a disparity between male and female humans. Most of them are quantitative differences which are based on a gradient and involve different averages which clearly represent a binary male/female spilt, such as human reproduction. However, some differences are controversial and not to be confused with sexist stereotypes. It does not necessarily identify whether the differences are due to natural phenomenon. Although, some differences are innate such as reproductive organs, others obviously environmental and few others the relationship is either multi-cause.
Evolutionary psychology claims that modern humans have inherited natural traits that were adaptive in a prehistoric environment. Gender role theory claims that boys and girls learn the appropriate behaviour and attitudes from the family and culture (environment) as the process of socialization. Some feminists claim that these differences as caused by patriarchy and discriminatory social stratification and argue for an acceptance of natural differences between men and women. Traditional religions claim gender differences are created by God.
"Gender analysis is a tool to diagnose the differences between women and men regarding their specific activities, conditions, needs, access to control over resources, and access to development benefits and decision-making. It studies the linkages of these and other factors in the larger social, economic, political and environmental context. Gender analysis entails, first and foremost, collecting sex-disaggregated data and gender-sensitive information about the population concerned. Gender analysis is the first step in gender-sensitive planning for promoting gender equality." 12

The "gender and development" paradigm, proposed in the process leading to the Beijing Conference, is perceived as an evolution from the hitherto dominant "women in Development" (WID) approach. As explained in the 1995 Commonwealth Plan of Action, "the WID Approach focused on how women could be better integrated into the existing 'men/male made world' and corresponding development initiatives. Targeting women's productive work to the exclusion of their reproductive work, this approach was characterized by income-generating projects for women that failed to address the systemic causes of gender inequality".13

Before discussing the woman as a human it is useful to discuss first the question of being woman which is perhaps originally appeared "as a social category, but also as a felt sense of self, a culturally conditioned or constructed subjective identity.” 51 The term "woman" has been used as a reference to and for the female body. However, women have always been creators of culture although this history is often invisible. No one can ignore women’s multi-dimensional contributions to culture –past, present and future.
Gender annalists are ignoring the qualitative analysis that explores and presents the representations of gender; what feminists challenge is the dominant ideologies concerning gender roles and sex. However, contemporary discussions about gender make it clear that gender roles are changeable and are currently in the process of transformation.
Domination model and the partnership model draw the cultural evolution of Western societies from prehistory to the present in terms of the underlying tension between man and woman. "The domination model is a configuration based on top-down rankings of control, while the partnership model is a configuration that can support a more equitable, peaceful, and sustainable way of life. In partnership-oriented societies, whether in the family, the workplace, or society at large, so-called feminine qualities and behaviours, whether they reside in women or men, are not only held in high esteem, but also incorporated into the operational values system"14. Democratic and egalitarian social structure, equal partnership between women and men, and less built-in violence, as it is not needed to maintain rigid rankings of domination. However, moving to partnership structures does not mean a completely flat organization or a mandatory consensus. In the views of A. Nagraj (Amarkantak), which is illustrated in ‘Vyavharvadi Samajshastra’ that there is a co-existence prevail (exist) among all human relationship in a family (including husband-wife, brother-sister and mother/father-sons/daughter etc.). This is a process of mutual fulfillment, mutual respect and mutual prosperity.

In the humanistic views ''Cultural transformation theory proposes that shifts from one model to the other are possible in times of extreme social and technological disequilibrium; that there is strong evidence of such a shift during our prehistory; and that in our time of massive technological and social dislocation another fundamental shift is possible — to a world orienting more to partnership rather than domination.'' This theory is the "centrality of the social construction of the roles and relations of the female and male halves of humanity to the construction of every social institution. It proposes that the underlying struggle for our future is not between the conventional polarities of right and left, religion and secularism, capitalism and communism, East and West, and North and South". 15
Social identity refers to the common identification with a collectivity or social category which creates a common culture among participants concerned.16 Social Identity Theory17 was originally developed to understand the psychological basis of inter-group discrimination and attempted to identify the minimal conditions that would lead members of one group to discriminate in favor of the in-group to whom they belonged and against another out-group. An important component of the self-concept is derived from memberships in social groups and categories and it postulates that group processes and inter-group relationships impact significantly on individuals' self perception and behaviors. The groups to which people belong will therefore provide their members with the definition of who they are and how they should behave 18 in the social sphere. The problem with categorizing is that it creates binaries, in which an individual has to be on one end of a linear spectrum, one must be male or female, thus implying that they have to identify themselves as man or woman. Globally, communities interpret biological differences between women and men to create a set of social expectations that define the behaviors that are appropriate for women and men and that determine women’s and men’s differential access to rights, resources, and power in society. Although the specific nature and degree of these differences vary from one society to the next, they typically favor men, creating an imbalance in power and gender inequalities in all countries. 19 Western philosopher Michel Foucault claimed that as sexual subjects, we are the object of power, which is not a institution or structure, rather it is signifier or name we attribute to “complex strategic situation.” 20 Thus, because “power” is what determines our attributes, behaviors, etc. we are a part of an ontologically and epistemologically constructed set of names and labels. Such as, being female characterizes one as a woman, and that this “women” is weak, emotional, and irrational, thus she is incapable of actions attributed to a “man.” Gender and sex, said Judith Butler, are more like verbs than nouns. But my actions are limited. I am not permitted to construct my gender and sex willy-nilly, according to Butler; this is so because gender is politically and therefore socially controlled. Rather than woman being something one is, it is something one does. 21
Simone de Beauvoir applied existentialism to women's experience of life: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one."22 This is a philosophical statement but it is true biologically. Within feminist theory, terminology for gender issues developed over the 1970s. In the 1974 edition of Masculine/Feminine or Human, the author uses "innate gender" and "learned sex roles",23 but in the 1978 edition, the use of sex and gender is reversed.24 By 1980, most feminist writings had agreed on using gender only for socio-culturally adapted traits.
Hurst states that some people think sex will “automatically determine one’s gender demeanor and role (social) as well as one’s sexual orientation (sexual attractions and behavior).”25 We have cultural origins and habits for dealing with gender. Michael Schwalbe believes that humans must be taught how to act appropriately in their designated gender in order to properly fill the role. The way we behave as masculine or feminine interacts with social expectations. Schwalbe comments that we “are the results of many people embracing and acting on similar ideas.” 26
Recent critiques of feminist theory by Warren Farrell 27 have given broader consideration to findings from a ten-year study of courtship by Buss28 Both perspectives on gendering are integrated in Attraction Theory, a theoretical framework developed by Dr Rory Ridley-Duff illustrating how courtship and parenting obligations (rather than male dominance) act as a generative mechanism that produces and reproduces a range of gender identities.29
Questions of equality of men and women comprise an enduring humanistic inquiry – from Plato's gender roles in his ideal society, to Marx and Engels' the origin of sexual inequality, to the increasingly debates among feminists. Despite all, gender equality has been relatively weak in ideologies, social institutions, and gender roles. Mainstream academic voices and popular opinion alike still tend either to deny, or are ambiguous about, the existence of gender-egalitarian societies i.e. political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social, and civil rights. 30 Despite their scarcity, societies do exist that are documented to have achieved remarkable levels of gender equality and slowly gender-egalitarian societies have increased.
Shanshan Du 31 indicates some parameters for gender-egalitarian societies which are "maternal centrality," "gender complementarity," "gender triviality," and "gender unity." Her research indicates that "while rooted in different gender ideologies and expressing sexual equality in diverse ways, these frameworks all promote harmony and interdependence between men and women and they discourage the development of gender-based competition and hierarchy. In other words, gender-egalitarian societies are also societies in balance". 31 It would be the humanistic views of gender discourse.
“Gender mainstreaming is at critical cross-roads right now. Many early supporters are disillusioned with the way it has worked so far and are beginning to feel that it has failed.” 32

The argument is that the perspective of MDGs and development agency, the most critical element of mainstreaming, its operations has not yet been seriously attempted and has focused solely on internal organizational dimensions. This paper asserts that although mainstreaming gender in operations requires some of more elements. They may be beyond the traditional concept of mainstreaming of gender equity and equality. The paper evolves and evaluates the concept of gender equity and equality, which recognizes woman by the elements of Physique, Position, Money and Muscular-power. In fact women are also a human and they are not the only biological entities but beyond that some thing more. Catharine MacKinnon asks: “Are women human yet? If women were regarded as human, would they be sold into sexual slavery worldwide; veiled, silenced, and imprisoned in homes; bred, and worked as menials for little or no pay; stoned for sex outside marriage or burned within it; mutilated genitally, impoverished economically, and mired in illiteracy--all as a matter of course and without effective recourse?” 33

Gender equality, equality between men and women, entails the concept that all human beings, both men and women, are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set by stereotypes, rigid gender roles and prejudices. Gender equality means that the different behaviour, aspirations and needs of women and men are considered, valued and favoured equally. It does not mean that women and men have to become the same, but that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. Gender equality means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different but which is considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities. 34

The Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) proposed gender mainstreaming as a key strategy to reduce inequalities between women and men. Gender mainstreaming, known also as mainstreaming a gender perspective, is "the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action including legislation, policies, and programmes, in any area and at all levels".35
Governments and organizations have to promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programs, so that before decisions are being taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively and to place human relations, as manifested in their "male" and "female" roles, at the centre of all programming, action, and evaluation, instead of treating these as marginal, or even "ghettoized" phenomena. “Gender mainstreaming thus underscores the principle that there can be no sustainable development as long as discrimination of one of the two sexes/genders exists. The injustice created by inequalities based on gender/sex discrimination threatens in the long run not only the discriminated gender but the entire society’’. 36

Kay E. Wilde of New York Law Journal Magazine says that Ms. MacKinnon provides numerous vivid and intensely disturbing examples of governments, through overt action or callous indifference, treating women as less than human and, thus, denying women their human rights. She is seeking to effect legal change on a global scale. We have to discuss the humanistic identity of the woman on humanitarian views and prospective.

Equality is possible in the 21st century and Humanistic Politics has a central role to play in creating balanced societies based on justice and equal rights. Our aim is to work for a more equitable future for both women and men. The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, amazing attainment for humanity will not be realized; humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment then the flight of human being will be exceedingly lofty and extraordinary. Men have an inescapable duty to promote the equality of women. The presumption of superiority by men thwarts the ambition of women and inhibits the creation of an environment in which equality may reign. The destructive effects of inequality prevent men from maturing and developing the qualities necessary to meet the challenges of the new millennium.

References:

1. UN General Assembly Resolution A/Res/55/2, 18 September, 2000 and UN Press Release, GA/9752, 8 September 2000.
2. Roadmap towards the implementation of the UN Millennium Declaration, Report of the Secretary General, 6 September 2001; UN Document A/56/32.
3. The eight Millennium Development Goals, which emerged from the UN Millennium Declaration (2000) are listed on pages 44-45.
4. Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson, ICC, ILPS, ILPS denounces UN Millennium Development Goals as scheme to aggravate imperialist plunder and poverty, Asia Pacific Research Network (2005)
5. Jackson, C., Rescuing gender from the poverty trap, in C. Jackson, and R. Pearson (eds) Feminist Visions of Development: Gender Analysis and Policy, London: Routledge, 1998.
6. Peggy Antrobus, MDGs—The Most Distracting Gimmick, 2003, Development Alternatives for Women in the New Era. www.dawn.org.fj/global/mdgs.html).
7. Millennium Project (2006) http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/gti.htm
8. For details, please refer to Kristen Timothy “The Millennium Development Goals: Gendered Pathways/Dimensions Background Paper prepared for the World Bank Workshop on Poverty and Gender : New Perspectives, May 7, 2002
9. UNIFEM 2000 : Progress of the World’s Women 2000, New York.
10. Prof. Jamilah Ariffin, Gender Critiques of the Millennium Development Goals: An Overview and an Assessment, (Paper) International Council on Social Welfare (2004)
11. Stephanie Garrett, Gender, (1992), p. 7.
12. ABC Of Women Worker's Rights And Gender Equality, ILO, Geneva, 2000, pp.47-48
13. Common wealth Plan of action on Gender and Development, 1995.
14. Eisler, Riane; Corral, Thais, "From Domination to Partnership: Meeting the UN Millennium Goals", Convergence, v38 n3, abstract, (2005) National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, UK
15. Dr. Riane Eisler, J.D. “The Battle over Human Possibilities: Women, Men, and Cultural Transformation”
16. Snow, D.A. and Oliver, P.E. (1995). "Social Movements and Collective Behavior: Social Psychological Dimensions and Considerations." In Karen Cook, Gary A.Fine, and James S.House (eds) Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology, pp.571-600. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
17. Taifel, H. & Turner, J.C. (1986). The social identity of intergroup relations. In S. Worchel & W.G. Austin (eds), The psychology of intergroup relations, pp.7-24. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
18. Terry, D.J., Hogg, M.A. (1996). Group norms and the attitude-behaviour relationship: A role for group identification. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 776-793.
19. Winnie Byanyima's sabbatical period at the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town : narrative report. http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/handle/123456789/27243,2005
20. Tong, Rosemarie.Feminist thought : a more comprehensive introduction / Rosemarie Tong.Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 2009.
21. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Thinking Gender. New York & London: Routledge, 1990
22. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949, as translated and reprinted 1989."
23. Chafetz, JS. Masculine/Feminine or Human? An Overview of the Sociology of Sex Roles. Itasca, Illinois: F. E. Peacock, 1974.
24. Chafetz, JS. Masculine/Feminine or Human? An Overview of the Sociology of Sex Roles. Itasca, Illinois: F. E. Peacock, 1978.
25. Stephanie Garrett, Gender, (1992), p. vii.
26. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, (1999), p. 9.
27. Farrell, W. (1988) Why Men Are The Way They Are, New York: Berkley Books Farrell, W. & Sterba, J (2008) Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men? A Debate, Oxford University Press
28. Buss, D.M. (2002) Human mating strategies. Samdunfsokonemen, 4: 48-58.
29. Ridley-Duff, R. J. (2008) "Gendering, Courtship and Pay Equality: Developing Attraction Theory to Understand Work-Life Balance and Entrepreneurial Behaviour", paper to the 31st ISBE Conference, 5th-7th November, Belfast.
30. The American Heritage (2003).
31. Shanshan Du, Frameworks for Societies in Balance: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Gender Equality, World Congress on Matriarchal Studies Luxemburg, 2003
32. Peggy Antrobus, MDGs-The Most Distracting Gimmick, dawn.org.fj/global/ mdgs.html (2003),
33. Catharine A. MacKinno, Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues, Harvard University Press.
34. ABC Of Women Worker's Rights And Gender Equality, ILO, Geneva, 2000, p.48.
35. ECOSOC Agreed Conclusions (E/1997/100).
36. (E/CN.6/1999/CRP.3, Executive summary of the World Survey on the Role of Women in Development).

*Research Officer and **Director, Jeevan Vidya Study Centre, Somaiya Vidya Vihar, Mumbai






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dHkh&dHkh ,slk yxrk gS fd i=dkfjrk esa U;k;] Lora=rk] lerk] ewY;] pfj=] uSfrdrk] fofèk&foèkku] O;oLFkk tSls vkèkkjHkwr 'kCnksa ds vFkZ gh [kks pqds gSaA buds vFkksZa ds èkzqohdj.k ,oa vFkksZa dh lkoZHkkSfedrk ds iz;kl Hkh i=dkfjrk esa ugha gks jgs gSaA ewY;&pfj=&uSfrdrk dks ysdj ,d nqfoèkk gSA ehfM;k esa gj vkneh vius vFkZ dks ysdj fy[k jgk gSA ifj.kker% turk esa lkFkZd lEizs"k.k ugha gks ik jgk gSA ukxfjd lekt esa Hkze QSyk jgk gSA xqejkg jktuhfrd ny vkSj vifjiDo jktusrk Hkh lekt esa O;oLFkk] lafoèkku vkSj 'kklu ds fl)karksa dks le>ss fcuk gh jktuhfrd O;ogkj djus dk iz;kl djrs gSa vkSj fQj lkekftdrk] ekuoh;rk vkSj ekuo vfèkdkjksa dh ijokg fd;s fcuk ehfM;k dks vius fgrksa dh iwfrZ ds fy;s gFkdaMs dh rjg ls bLrseky djus dh dqfRlr dksf'k'k djrs gSaA os dHkh lQy gks tkrs gSa vkSj dHkh ehfM;kdfeZ;ksa dks jktuhfr] tkfr vkSj oxZ ds vkèkkj ij foHkkftr dj mudh detksjh dk ykHk mBkrs gSaA vketu dh 'kklu O;oLFkk vkSj lafoèkku ij vkLFkk detksj gks jgh gSA gj 'kgj esa turk vius >xM+s xq.Mksa] ?kfV;k usrkvksa vkSj ekfQ;k ls fuiVkuk pkgrh gSA ehfM;k esa muds f[kykQ fy[kus dk lkgl ugha gS ;k foKkiu ikus dh O;kolkf;d etcwjh gSA
,slk ugha gS fd dsoy laln vkSj foèkkulHkkvksa esa gh O;fDr dh xfjek fxjh gksA ekuo dh xfjek dks v{kq.; j[kus ds fy, t:jh le>nkjh dk vHkko dsoy jktusrkvksa esa gks ,slk ugha gS] blesa ehfM;k Hkh de nks"kh& ugha gSA ehfM;k dh ftruh #fp fea;k eqljZQ dh csxe ds fnYyh vkus esa mudh [kjhnnkjh ij jgrh gS mruh lafoèkku leh{kk vk;ksx dh cgl ,oa leh{kk ds eqíksa ij] lrZdrk vk;qDr vkSj egkvfHkys[kkxkj dh flQkfj'kksa ij ugha jgrh gSA lqanj fL=;ksa dh rLohj vkSj miHkksDrkokn dh lkexzh Nkidj ehfM;k HkksxksUekn dks c<+kok ns jgk gS ;g fopkj.hk; iz'u gS\ flQZ ;g dgdj cpko djus ls fd] ikBdksa dh xaHkhj fo"k;ksa esa #fp ugha gS vkSj izlkj dh izfrLièkkZ ds fy;s mUgsa ,slk djuk iM+rk gS rks fQj ehfM;k dk jktusrkvksa dks nks"k nsus vkSj xkyh cdus dk dksbZ vfèkdkj ugha jg tkrk gSA ;fn jktusrk Hkh oksV ds fy;s ;gh lc djrs gSa rks mUgsa fQj D;ksa ehfM;k nks"kh djkj nsrk gSA ekuo vfèkdkjksa dh nks"kh ;fn jktlŸkk gS rks ehfM;k Hkh de ugha gSA vkt 'kgjksa esa lSdM+ksa uxjh; leL;k,a gS] dkuwuh&nkao isap ls yksx vufHkK gSa] U;k;ky;hu izfØ;k vR;ar eagxh gSa] ljdkj dh yksd dY;k.kdkjh uhfr;ksa dk turk dks irk ugha py ikrk gS vkSj ,sls esa ehfM;k C;wVh dk¡LVsLV] osysaVkbu Ms] nqxkZ mRlo] n'kgjk rFkk oYMZ di ds dojst dks izkFkfedrk nsrk gS ;g dSlk nqHkkZX; gSA Hkkjr ds Lora=rk vkanksyu esa lefiZr jktusrk vkSj rRdkyhu ehfM;k Hkh ;fn ,slk gh gksrk rks fQj Hkkjr esa lafoèkku] fofèk&foèkku] U;k;] Lora=rk] ewy vfèkdkjksa vkSj lerk ds fl)karkas dh igpku ds iz;kl ughsa gks ikrsA vkt tks Hkh dqN VwVk&QwVk gS mls Hkh ge lEgky ugha ik jgs gSaA Hkys gh ;g lp Hkh gks fd orZeku lafoèkku :ih O;oLFkk ekuoh; ;k ukxfjd vis{kkvksa dks iwjk djus esa vlQy lkfcr gks jgh gS ysfdu vlQyrk ds dkj.k vkSj vkxs lQy gksus ds fy, U;k;&Lora=rk ds fl)karksa dh [kkst@igpku vkSj mUgsa fofèk&foèkku esa cnyus ds fy;s t:jh ekuoh;rk :ih Lohd`fr ds fy;s dkSu dke djsxkA fQj Hkh i=dkfjrk ds oSf'od mÌs'; ekuork ;k lkekftdrk ds y{; dks iwjk djus dh fn'kk esa Ádkf'kr laikndh; fVIif.k;ksa] vkys[kksa vkSj lekpkjksa ds p;u ds vkèkkj ij Li"V gks ldrs gSaA laikndh; fVIif.k;ksa] vkys[kksa ds mís'; vkSj lekpkjksa ds p;u ds fy;s ges ewY;&pfj=&uSfrdrk dh n`f"V] U;k;&èkeZ&O;oLFkk dh vis{kk] ijEijk vkSj ekU;rkvksa dh Js"Brk dh nqgkbZ nsuh iM+rh gSA jk"Vªh; Lrj ij i=dkfjrk ds mÌs'; lafoèkku vkSj lafoèkku dh ewy Hkkouk dh iwfrZ ds fy;s dh xbZ jktuhfrd xfrfofèk;ksa] 'kklfud&Á'kklfud izfØ;kvksa] tu xfrfofèk;ksa vkSj mldh leh{kk&ewY;kadu ls Li"V gksrs gSaA ,sls oSf'od mÌs';ksa ds èkzqohdj.k ds vHkko esa gh i=dkfjrk ij HkVdko] ewY;ghurk vkSj jktuhfrd&O;olkf;d mÌs';ksa dh iwfrZ esa dk;Z djus ds vkjksi yxrs jgs gSaA lafoèkku dh ewyHkkouk ;k lafoèkku dk mÌs'; Hkh ekuork vkSj lkekftdrk dh iwfrZ ds fy, ,d O;oLFkk nsus dk iz;kl gSA ftlds vkèkkj ij turk dh Loh—fr ls 'kklu&Á'kklu dk lewpk us vkSj mlds vuq:i Á;kl ,oa Je djus dh ps"Vk ekuo O;fDrxr vkSj lkewfgd :i ls djrk jgk gS vkSj mls djrs jguk Hkh pkfg;s vU;Fkk ns'k dks vjktdrk] vkradokn] vfLFkjrk vkSj vfuf'prrk Hkksxus gsrq rS;kj jguk pkfg;sA
ÁR;sd lafoèkku vkSj gj Ádkj dh jkT; O;oLFkk rFkk lHkh èkeksZa&lEiznk;ksa dk mÌs'; Hkh ekuork dh iwfrZ gh jgk gSA lHkh fofèk&foèkku] jkT;] 'kklu Á.kkfy;k¡ vkSj èkeZ dh uhfr;ka] lkekftd ijEijk,a lHkh ekuork ds mÌs';ksa dh iwrhZ ds fy;s gSaA lafoèkku] O;oLFkk] lkekftdrk] èkeZ vkfn lHkh ekuo ek= ds fy;s gh gSA vr% bu lHkh esa ftruk vfèkd ekuoRo vkSj ekuork gksxh ml vkèkkj ij gh budh Js"Brk Lohdkj gksxhA vr% tc dHkh jkT; lŸkk,a vkSj ra= cnyrk gS lafoèkku esa vewy&pwy ifjoZru dh t:jr eglwl gksrh gS vkSj rc&rc lafoèkku] jkT; vkSj 'kklu dks ekuork dh dlkSVh ij gh dlk tkrk gSA ;fn lafoèkku] O;oLFkk] èkeZ ls ekuo fojksèkh xfrfofèk;k¡] fgalk] vkrad] ?k`.kk] }s"k] yksHk] 'kks"k.k] vU;k; vkSj vR;kpkj lekt esa QSyrk gS rks mudh Js"Brk ij lansg LokHkkfod gS vkSj ekuo tkfr dk ml ij ls fo'okl mBuk Hkh LokHkkfod ÁfØ;k gSA bls m[kkM+&QSadus ds fy;s Hkh lekt vkSj tuleqnk; rS;kj jgrk gh gSA lŸkk&ra= ifjorZu] èkeZ ls foeq[krk rFkk jhfrfjoktksa] ijEijkvksa esa ifjorZu ;k lkaLd`frd ifjorZu nqfu;kHkj esa gksrs jgs gSaA vr% vU;k; vkSj vuhfr;ksa dks c<+kus okyh izo`fŸk;ksa ds gVkus ds fy;s lafoèkku esa Hkh cnyko djuk gh pkfg;s ;g ,d vko';d izfØ;k gSA lafoèkku dksbZ ,slh iqLrd ugha gS ftlesa le;≤ ij ;qx ds vuqdwy] izd`fr vkSj ekuo dh t:jrksa ds vuqlkj ifjoZru u fd;k tk ldsA yphyk lafoèkku vPNk ekuk tkrk gSA ehfM;k dks bldh fujarj leh{kk] ewY;kadu vkSj vkykspuk dk vfèkdkj jguk gh pkfg;sA pkgs fgUnqRo gks ;k dksbZ Hkh vU; èkeZ&laLd`fr ijEijk ;fn og vius rdZ] n'kZu] fparu] ewY;] uhfr ,oa jhfrfjokt vkfn dks nwljksa ls Js"B ekurh gS vkSj nwljksa dks vius ls gs; ekurh gS rks LoHkkfod :i ls vgadkj] }a}] ruko] jks"k] ijLij la?k"kZ gksuk LokHkkfod gSA eqfLye èkeZ laxBu gks ;k fgUnq èkeZ laxBu ;k fQj ;gwnh gks ;k fQfyLrhuh Js"Brk dk vkèkkj rks ekuork ;k ekuoh; vkdka{kkvksa o ekuoh; y{;ksa dh iwfrZ vkSj muds vkèkkj ij ewY;kadu ls gksxk] rHkh Js"Brk Áekf.kr gksxhA vU;Fkk] vekuoh; ;k i'kq Áo`fŸk ¼i'kqrk½ gh ekuh tk;sxhA foxr dqN o"kksZa ls nqfu;k esa lEÁnk; ;k èkeZ ds vkèkkj ij Lo;a dks Js"B ekuus ds leLr iz;kl ;q)&la?k"kZ] vkrad] naxs&Qlkn ds dkj.k cus gSa ftlls èkeZ] lEÁnk;] tkfr vkSj oxZ ds vkèkkj ij ukxfjd lekt dk foHkktu rh[kk vkSj xgjk gksrk x;k gSA ftlesa ekuork dk guu gqvk gS èkeZ&lEÁnk; dh ewy Hkkouk ij pksV igqaph gSA dqN fopkjksa o fparu ls nfjnz vkSj dqafBr èkeZ&lEÁnk; ds dfFkr usrkvksa us vkneh vkSj vkneh ds chp njkj iSnk dh gSA ;s èkhjs&èkhjs xgjh [kkbZ;ksa esa cnyrh tk jgh gSaA blls ekuork foHkkftr gksrh tkrh gSA vkneh [kseksa] tkfr;ksa vkSj oxksZa dks vizklafxd u ekurs gq;s vkSj Hkh mlesa caVrk tk jgk gSA lafoèkku esa tkfr ds vkèkkj ij vkj{k.k] èkeZ ds vkèkkj ij vYila[;d&cgqla[;d] fgUnq&eqfLye dksM ds vkèkkj ij ukxfjd lekt dk foHkktu fd;k gSA lafoèkku dh ;k=k ds 52 o"kksZa ls Hkh vfèkd le; rd ldkjkRed foHksn ¼ikftfVo fMfLØsfeus'ku½ ds dkj.k lkekftd :i ls detksj vkSj vkfFkZd :i ls foiUu tkfr;ksa esa ^Øhehys;j* cu xbZ gSA ,slh tkfr;ksa dh vfèkdka'k vkcknh oSlh gh jg jgh gS tSlh vkj{k.k ls iwoZ FkhA ifj.kker% vkt rd lafoèkku dk y{; lkekftd&jktuhfrd U;k; vkSj lHkh izdkj dh lekurk gkfly ugha dh tk ldh gSA jktuhfrd ny oksV ds frfyLe esa Qal dj leku ukxfjd lafgrk ij fopkj ugha dj ik jgs gSaA ehfM;k ds ikl viuk dksbZ i{k ugha gSA og nwljksa ds i{k&foi{k fØ;k&izfrfØ;k lq>ko&fojksèk] lgefr&vlgefr dks vfHkO;Dr djrk gSA mls jktuSfrd fparu vkSj lafoèkku eas gh Bgjko feyrk gS] foKku dh rF;kRedrk o rkfdZdrk mls izHkkfor djrh gSA bl lc ds eè; i=dkj vius ekuork ds èkzqo fcanq dks u rks r; dj ik jgk gS vkSj u gh igpku dj ik jgk gSA fo[kf.Mr ekufldrk] foHkkftr ekuo vkSj tkfr&èkeZ&lEiznk; Hksn esa Qalk ukxfjd lHkh ds fy;s foèkku ¼le&foèkku½ dSls igpkus ;g iz'u\ og dSls O;oLFkk ds fy;s t:jh leku lafoèkku&fofèk&foèkku dh igpku djsxk\ ekuo ekufldrk dks dsUnz esa j[kdj gh ;g gks ldrk gSA ekuo ekufldrk dh igpku ds fy, ekuo dsafnzr O;oLFkk ij fopkj&fparu djuk gksxkA
xksèkjk] xqtjkr] d'ehj] iatkc vkSj tkQuk] fQyhLrhu tSlh vusd jDrjaftr ?kVukvksa ds ewy esa LoJs"Brk dk vgadkj] xoksZfDr] nEHk vkSj dqfVy&"kM;a=dkjh jktuhfrd egRodk{kk,a gh gS tks ewyr% èkeZ dh ewy Hkkouk ds foijhr gSA fgVyj vkSj ekslksyuh ds ukthokn o Qkalhokn esa dqN ,sls gh iz;ksx fd;s x;s FksA bl lcds ckn Hkh O;oLFkk :ih lafoèkku dh vkykspuk rc rd ?kkrd gS tc rd oSdfYid O;oLFkk dh dYiuk ekuoh; lafoèkku ds :i esa u gksA O;oLFkk dks fcuk le>s mls udkjuk vjktdrk dks tUe nsrk gSA ^jke cM+s gSa ;k lafoèkku*] ^dqjku cM+h gS] 'kjh;r cM+h gS ;k Átkrkaf=d lafoèkku\ vkLFkk ds elys U;k;ky; dSls lqy>k ldrk gaS\ ;s ,sls HkkoukRed dFku gS tks ,d LFkkfir&Loh—r O;oLFkk dks rks pqukSrh nsrs gSa ij mlls Js"B O;oLFkk ftlls ekuoh;rk vkSj lkekftdrk ds lkFk lkoZHkkSe O;oLFkk] v[k.M LojkT; O;oLFkk vkSj loZrkseq[kh lekèkku dh >yd feys] ,sls ekuoh; lafoèkku dks ÁLrqr djus esa iw.kZr% vlQy gSaA laln esa lafoèkku ds ekuo fojksèkh Ákoèkkuksa ¼;fn gSa rks½ ij ppkZ djus ds fy;s t:jh vè;;u] 'kksèk vkSj vuqHko dh deh fn[krh gS lekèkku ds vHkko esa mudh fuank] mis{kk djuk vkSj udkjus ls rks vO;oLFkk gh [kM+h gqbZ gSA foxr fnuksa laiw.kZ izHkqRo lEiUu laln ,oa foèkkuHkouksa esa tu izfrfufèk;kas dh vkilh flj QqVOcy fdlh ls fNih ugha gSA vkradokfn;ksa dk bl ij geyk Hkh dgha budh vlQyrk ls turk esa QSyh ?k`.kk dh ifj.kfr gks ldrh gSA ,slh dYiuk,a vusd dFkkvksa esa Hkh gS ftls Qhpj fQYeksa esa fQYek;k x;k gSA ftlus iztkra=] ekuo dh xfjek o lkalnksa dks feyh LoPNanrk ij Hkh iz'u [kMs+ fd;s gSaA jktuhfrd :i ls foHkkftr ehfM;k flQZ }a} iSnk dj ldrk gS lekèkku ugha fudyk ldrk gSA
dsanz ljdkj us lafoèkku leh{kk vk;ksx dk xBu fd;k Fkk ftl ij dqN laxBuksa us gks&gYyk fd;k ,sls vusd laxBu bl ns'k esa gSa tks Hkkjr ds lafoèkku dks ekuo fojksèkh] vkèkk&vèkwjk crkrs jgs gSa] dqN u dqN deh dks ysdj vkykspuk djrs jgs gSa ysfdu nq[k ;g gS fd mUgksaus lafoèkku leh{kk vk;ksx ds le{k vius lq>ko nsuk Hkh mfpr ugha le>k vkSj mudh vkykspuk dk Loj vHkh Hkh Fkek ugha gSA njvly] ge lHkh leL;kvksa ij ppkZ djus okys vkSj mUgsa QSykus okys lekt cuus tk jgs gSaA lekèkku ij fparu tSls gekjs o'k esa ugha gS blh dkj.k ge viuh leL;kvksa ds fy;s if'pe dk eqag rkdrs jgrs gSaA if'peh ds mnkgj.kksa ls Hkkjrh; ifjfLFkfr;ksa dks le>s fcuk ÅViVkax fu.kZ; ysrs jgrs gSaA dqN dfFkr fo}kuksa dh vknr gks xbZ gS fd if'peh ns'kksa ds fo}kuksa ds 'kksèk&vè;;u dk ewY;kadu fd;s fcuk fg easko ykyQhrk'kkgh esa dgka èkwy [kkrs jgsaxs] dgk ugha tk ldrk gSA ftlesa ifj.kker% turk esa Hkze&QSysxk] vUr}Za} tUe ysaxs vkSj lafoèkku dh xfjek vkgr gksrh jgsxh rFkk mlds Áfr lekt esa] ukxfjdksa esa vukLFkk c<+rh jgsxhA ;g lc vusd Ádkj ds fgald vkSj fofHkUu la?k"kZ&vkanksyu dk dkj.k cusxkA U;k; vkSj Lora=rk izkfIr ds fy;s O;oLFkk dh igpku djuk èkeZ] tkfr vkSj iSls dh {kqnz jktuhfr djus okyksa ds cl dh ckr Hkh ugha gSA vijkèkh vkSj èkUuklsBksa ds fxjr esa jgus okys jktuhfrd nyksa ls ifjiDo fparu dh mEehn Hkh dSls dh tk ldrh gS! jktuhfrd ny èkhjs&èkhjs fpardksa&fopkjdksa dks njfdukj djrs tk jgs gSaA blh Øe esa laoSèkkfud laLFkkvksa ij vaxqyh mBkdj mUgsa lafnXèk djus dk Hkh Á;kl gqvkA pquko vk;ksx ds fu.kZ; dks ysdj tcjnLr jktuhfr gFkdaMs lkeus vk;sA ifj.kke D;k gqvk pquko vk;ksx us tc xqtjkr naxksa ds ckn ogka pquko lapkyu esa 'kfDr dh rks ,d ny us mldh fuank dh] u tkus dSls&dSls xans vkjksi mNkys vkSj tc NŸkhlx<+ foèkkulHkk pqquko esa pquko vk;ksx us 'kfDr dh vkSj iz'kklfud ra= ds jktuhfrdj.k ij pksV dh rks fryfeykdj nwljs ny ds yksx vk;ksx dh fuank ij mrj vk;s vkSj vkèkkjghu vkjksi yxkus yxsA ,slk gh dqN lh-ch-vkbZ-] lrdZrk vk;ksx] vkSj ;gka rd fd U;k;ky;ksa ds QSlyksa ij Hkh fd;k x;kA ns'k esa lafoèkku] laoSèkkfud laLFkkvksa] 'kklu vkSj U;k;&O;oLFkk ds Áfr vukLFkk c<+rh tk jgh gSA ;g Hkh lp gS fd dqN rks bu laLFkkvksa esa vUrfuZfgr nks"kksa ds dkj.k ls gS vkSj dqN ukle> ehfM;k vkSj jktusrkvksa ds }kjk iSnk dh xbZ gSA ,slh vukLFkk Átkra= vkSj ekuork ds fy;s ?kkrd rks gS gh U;k;&lqj{kk ra= dks Hkh detksj djus okyh gSA pquko vk;ksx] loksZPp U;k;ky;] egkvfHkys[kkxkj] lrZdrk vk;ksx] yksdk;qDr ,oa ,slh gh vU; laLFkkvksa dks Hkh Hkzfer vkSj O;oLFkk fojksèkh jktusrkvksa us vius LokFkZ ds fy;s budh fo'oluh;rk dks Hkh lafnXèk djus dk Á;kl fd;k gSA T;knkrj u;s] demez vkSj xSjvuqHkoh ysfdu mRlkgh [kcjfp;ksa ds dkj.k dHkh&dHkh lEiw.kZ ehfM;k Hkh blesa 'kkfey gks tkrk gSA
njvly] 'kklu ds Lrj ij Hkh ,slh ukle>h gks jgh gSA fdlh Hkh ljdkj ;k ra= ls turk dk tqM+ko ;k vkLFkk rc iSnk gksrh gS tcfd ljdkj ;k ra= lhèks turk ls tqM+rk gSA HkweaMyhdj.k] fo'o O;kikj laxBu] mnkjhdj.k ,oa O;olkf;drk ds Hkzfer dqpØ ds pyrs ljdkj us foxr o"kksZa ls f'k{kk] LokLF;] ifjogu tSlh cqfu;knh ekuoh; vko';drk dk futhdj.k djuk 'kq# dj fn;k gSA ljdkj esa 'kk;n dqN yksx ;g lksprs gksaxs fd ljdkj vke turk ds fy;s dqN Hkh u djs vkSj mlds ds ckn Hkh naM ¼M.Ms dk½ dk dkuwu lapkfyr dj ldsxhA vkLFkk fdlh u fdlh vis{kk ;k ÁyksHku ij vkèkkfjr gksrh gSA ^vkLFkk^ Hkys gh ra= dks tkus fcuk iSnk gksrh gS ij vkLFkk esa lgh ;k 'kqHk dh dkeuk dk Hkko gksrk gS rFkk ewY;&pfj=] fofèk&foèkku dh fLFkjrk dk Hkko jgrk gSA ^vkLFkk^ ds fo"k;ksa dks le>nkjh] f'k{kk vkSj lEizs"k.kk ls ^fo'okl^ esa cnyk tk ldrk gS ftldk iz;kl Hkkjr esa visf{kr :i ls de gks jgk gSA f'k{kk ds y{; ,oa ewY;ksa dk fuèkkZj.k u gksuk bldk dkj.k gSA ljdkj ;fn f'k{kk] LokLF; vkSj ifjogu vkfn cqfu;knh lqfoèkkvksa ls vius gkFk [khap ysrh gS vkSj ewyHkwr vko';drkvksa dk futhdj.k turk dks egaxk yxrk gS rks lekt dks la?k"kZfoghu] }a} eqDr djuk vlaHko gS ;g vusd Ádkj dh leL;kvksa dks tUe nsxkA ykHk dekus ds fy;s [kM+h f'k{k.k laLFkk,a] LokLF; laLFkku rFkk egaxk futh ifjogu vkcknh ds ,d cM+s oxZ dks 'kklu ls LokHkkfod :i ls dkV nsxk ;k dkV jgk gSA bu ifjfLFkfr;ksa esa ekuo vfèkdkjksa dh j{kk jkT; ds o'k esa ugha gSA lkFk gh blls Átkra= o 'kklu ds Áfr mith vukLFkk ls lekt esa ekuo fojksèkh vlkekftdrk tUe ys jgh gSA loZ= vlqj{kk] Hk; vkSj vkrad dk okrkoj.k cu jgk gSA uDlyoknh] vyxkooknh] vkradoknh vkSj ekfQ;k ,sls voljksa dk ykHk mBkdj fujhg vkSj ew[kZ turk dks fgalk vkSj vU;k; dh vksj èkdsy ikus esa lQy gks jgs gaSA eagxh f'k{kk lekt ds vfHktkR; oxZ ds eqV~BhHkj yksxksa dks 'kklu&Á'kklu ,oa jktuhfr esa ,slh txg ij LFkkfir dj nsxh tgka ij ekuho;rk] lkekftdrk ls lEiUu izfrHkk'kkfy;ksa dks gksuk pkfg,A lŸkk dk fodsUnzhdj.k] xzkeLojkT; O;oLFkk dh vksj :>ku] iapk;r jkTk O;oLFkk] fodkl esa tuHkkxhnkjh dqN ,sls Á;kl gSa ftlls 'kklu vkSj turk ds eè; tqM+ko gks ldsxkA ysfdu xzke LojkT; O;oLFkk dks ifjokj ewyd cukuk gksxk rFkk le>nkjh ykus ds fy;s f'k{kk dks laLdkj vkSj vfLrRo ewyd ekuo dsafnzr fparu :ih loZekuo ds fy;s loZrkseq[kh lekèkku] lkoZHkkSe O;oLFkk rFkk v[k.M LojkT; O;oLFkk ls tksM+uk gksxkA f'k{kk esa vfuok;Z :i ls lafoèkku] O;oLFkk vkSj lkekftdrk] ekuork dks vkèkkj ikB~;Øe ds :i esa 'kkfey djuk gksxkA ;fn ;s lc iz;ksx fdlh jktuhfrd ny }kjk dsoy ernkrkvksa dks yqHkkus ds fy;s vkSj oksV cVksjus ds fy;s fd;s tkrs gSa rks bl ij tuvkLFkk dk iSnk gksuk ,d {kf.kd ?kVuk gks ldrh gSA nh?kZdkyhu ifj.kke ds fy;s ,sls ewy fopkjksa dks f'k{kk esa 'kkfey djuk gksxk rFkk lHkh dks le>nkj cukus ds ekWMy dks fodflr djuk gksxkA vfèkdkj lEiUurk dh lkFkZdrk le>nkjh esa gSA ukle> vkSj Hkzfer vkneh dh vfèkdkj lEiUurk ls rkuk'kkgh] Hkz"V] gBh vkSj ftíh izo`fr iuirh gS tks lekt esa vlarks"k o fgaLkk dk dkj.k curh gSA
cqfu;knh :i ls ge dg ldrs gSa fd ekuoh;rk ds laj{k.k] iks"k.k vkSj laoèkZu ds fy;s gh lafoèkku] 'kklu&Á'kklu vkSj i=dkfjrk gSA ;fn buls ekuoh;rk dk laj{k.k gksrk gS rc rks ;s viuk Á;kstu iwjk dj jgs gksrs gSa] vU;Fkk ughaA i=dkfjrk dks ;fn HkVdko] iru] ewY;ghurk tSlh vusd vkykspukvksa ls cpuk gS rks mls ekuoh;rk ds lkoZHkkSe mÌs';ksa dks viuh fo"k;&oLrq ds y{; ds :i esa igpkuuk gksxkA lkekftdrk dks è;ku esa j[krs gq;s lkexzh dk p;u o vius Ádk'ku&Álkj.k dh uhfr;ksa dk fuèkkZj.k djuk iM+sxk vU;Fkk i=dkfjrk lwpuk&izpkj&izksiksxaMk ra= cu dj jg tk;sxh] dqN gn rd gksrh Hkh tk jgh gS vkSj O;olk;h o jktuhfrd yksx vius mYyw lhèkk djus i=dkfjrk o i=dkjksa dks izyksHku&Hk; ls fu;af=r djds vuSfrdrk] vU;k;] 'kks"k.k vkSj pfj=ghurk dh vksj s fcuk lkekftdrk vkSj ekuoh;rk Li"V ugha gksrh gSA lkekftdrk] ekuoh;rk] ruko&ihM+k eqfDr] O;ogkfjdrk vkfn dk lhèkk lacaèk ckSf)d LokLF; ls gS] ftldks ysdj f'k{kk ;k O;oLFkk esa dksbZ fo'ks"k rS;kjh ugha fn[krh gSA Lora=rk] U;k;] lerk] pfj=] ewY;] fo'okl] lEeku] izse vkfn vkSj O;fDr dh futrk dh xfjek dk T;knk o lhèkk lacaèk ekuo ds 'kjhj ls u gksdj thou ;k pSrU; i{k ls gSA bldks le>s fcuk lafoèkku] O;oLFkk] ekuork vkSj lkekftdrk dks ugha le>k tk ldsxkA O;oLFkk ds fofèki{k vkSj O;ogkj ds fy, lafoèkkui{k dks Hkh ugha le.k tk ldrk gSA
ekuo ds lewps Je] f'k{kk rFkk Á;kl ds xraO; dks ;fn le>k tk, rks loZ ekuo ds y{; ds :i esa pkj ekuoh; y{; dks lkoZHkkSe y{; ds :i esa igpkuk tk ldrk gSA lekèkku ¼ckSf)d vkSj HkkSfrd½] le`f) ¼HkkSfrd ,oa ckSf)d½] vHk; ¼Ák—frd foinkvksa] i'kqvksa ls ,oa ekuo esa fufgr vekuoh;rk :ih Hk; ls eqfDr½ ,oa lg&vfLrRo ¼lkekftdrk ,oa lqq[k ds lkFk lekt vkSj ifjokj esa jguk½A lekèkku dk vFkZ gS HkkSfrd :i ls lkekU; vkdka{kkvksa dh iwfrZ gks tkuk ,oa ckSf)d :i ls ekufld] ikfjokfjd vkSj O;oLFkkxr leL;kvksa ds D;k] D;ksa] dSls vkfn Á'uksa ds mŸkj ;k gy ÁkIr dj ysukA foKku] f'k{kk vkSj O;oLFkk esa ekuoh; Á;kl leL;kvksa ds lekèkku ds Á;kl ds :i esa i=dkfjrk ds iz;kstu dks igpkuk tk ldrk gSA le`f) dk vFkZ gS ekuo dks 'kjhj ,oa thou ¼psruk½ ds iks"k.k&laj{k.k ds fy;s t:jh HkkSfrd&jklk;fud oLrqvksa rFkk lacaèk vkSj O;ogkj ds fy;s visf{kr Hkko dk vko';drk ls vfèkd gksus ls gSA Li"V gS fd vkgkj] vkokl] vyadkj ds :i esa ekuoh; vko';drk ds èkzqohdj.k ls vko';drkvksa dk fuèkkZj.k gks ldrk gSA ckSf)d le`f) dk lhèkk lk vFkZ gS fd ftu fopkj] Hkko] ewY;] pfj=] uSfrdrk] lacaèk vkfn dk vHkko yxrk gks mldk vHkko gks tk,A vHk; ÁkfIr ;k Hk;eqDr lekt ds fy;s gh 'kklu] Á'kklu] lqj{kk] U;k; ra= vkSj f'k{kk laLdkj gSA lafoèkku vkSj O;oLFkk ekuo ;k ukxfjdksa dks Hk; ls eqfDr dk vk'oklu nsrk gSA Hk; ewyr% Ák—frd vkinkvksa ds :i esa] i'kqvksa] dhV&iraxksa vkfn ls 'kjhj ds {kfrxzLr ;k u"V gksus ds :i esa ,oa ekuo esa fufgr vekuoh;rk ¼Øwjrk] nhurk] vijkèk] fgalk] vkrad] ?k`.kk] }s"k ds :i esa½ :ih Hk; gSA ;g Hk; pkj dksVh esa ekuHk;] èkuHk;] ruHk;] inHk; ds :i esa gSA lkekftd O;oLFkk vkSj lkoZHkkSe O;oLFkk dk k tk ldrk gS vkSj ^èkeZ* ekuo dk ekuo lfgr lEiw.kZ Á—fr ds lkFk lg&vfLrRo :ih lacaèk ftlls lq[kiwoZd jgk tk lds ,oa ^lR;* ekuo dk lEiw.kZ vfLrRo ds lkFk lacaèk esa ifjHkkf"kr gksrk gSA ^lR;* dks oLrqxr lR;] fLFkfrxr lR; vkSj oLrqfLFkfr lR; ds :i esa igpkuk tkrk gSA U;k;] èkeZ] lR; dh le> ds fcuk dksbZ Hkh O;oLFkk o jkT; dh dYiuk ugha dh tk ldrh gSA fiz;&fgr ykHkkRed n`f"V ladh.kZrk dk dkj.k gSa] U;k;&èkeZ lR;kRed n`f"V;ka O;kid gksrh gSaA tcfd ijek.kq 'kfDr lEiUurk vusd jk"Vªksa esa vk pqdh gSA vc mUgsa M.Ms ls gkadus dk dk;Z vklku ugha gSA vklku rks iwoZ esa Hkh ugha FkkA blh dkj.k cMs+&NksVs ;q) gq;sA vkneh us ejuk Lohdkj fd;k ij fdlh ds M.Ms ds 'kklu esa thus dks lnSo udkjk gSA M.Ms ls vkenh dks pykus ds iz;kl ls fgalk vkSj vkrad iSnk gksrk gSA
i'kqrk] vekuoh;rk vkSj vijkèk dk fu;af=r djus ds fy;s n.M ÁfØ;k lafgrk ¼n.M dk fuèkkZj.k½] vijkèk lafgrk ¼n.M fu:i.k ds Ákoèkku½] ,oa lk{; vfèkfu;e ¼vijkèk Áekf.kr djus dh ÁfØ;k½ gSA nqHkkZX;tud ,oa vekuoh; rF; ;g gSa fd vkt Hkh ekuo lekt xyrh dks xyrh ls] vijkèk dks vijkèk ls vkSj fgalk dks fgalk ls fuiVus dk ;k mUewyu dk Á;kl fd;s tk jgk gS] ftlesa okLrfod U;k; dk loZnk vHkko jgrk gSA vijkèk djus okys dks ltk ds :i esa nq[kh ;k ÁrkfM+r djds U;k; ;k lq[k dh ekuoh; dYiuk loZnk Hkzfer dYiuk gSA ftlds ikl tks gksxk ogh rks og ckaVsxkA nwljs dks nq[kh djus ls nq[k gh c<+rk gS] lkekftdrk fdlh Hkh fLFkfr esa ugha vkrh gSA ifj.kker% vHkh rd ekuo tkfr esa vijkèk fnuksa&fnu c<+rk tk jgk gS vkSj Hkh T;knk ?kkrd vkSj lagkjdrk ds lkFk esa ekuork dks dyafdr dj jgk gSA njvly vijkèk fu;a=.k ds fy;s Hk; dk Á;ksx ,oa bLrseky dks le>nkjh ugha ekuk tk ldrk gSA tsyksa dks lqèkkj dsUnz ds :i esa vkSj f'k{kk dks laLdkj ls tksM+us dh fn'kk esa Hkh Á;kl gksuk pkfg;sA lqèkkj M.Ms ls ugha f'k{kk o le>nkjh c<+us ls gh laHko gSA vr% blds fy;s f'k{kk&laLdkj vkSj U;k;&lqj{kk ra= dks etcwr dj xyrh dks le>nkjh ls] vijkèk dks laLdkj ls ,oa fgalk dks lkekftdrk ls nwj fd;k tk ldrk gSA i=dkfjrk ,oa 'kklu ls tqM+s yksxksa dks ekuoh; n`f"V dks le>uk pkfg;sA rHkh iztkra= dh bfPNr U;k;&Lora=rk dh v{kq.;rk jg ldrh gS vU;Fkk fujadq'krk] euekuh c<+sxhA lafoèkku vkSj U;k; dh mis{kk dj vkradokn] fgalk vkSj vyxko dh leL;kvksa ls ugha fuiVk tk ldrk gSA lafoèkku vkSj U;k;ikfydk loZekuo dh vis{kkvksa dks iwjk djus ds fy;s gksuk pkfg;s u fd iSls ls lEiUu iwathifr;ksa] O;olkf;;ksa ds fgr@LokFkksZa dks lkèkus ds fy;sA U;k; loZ lqyHk gksuk pkfg;s] eagxk cksf>y rFkk foyEc ls feyus okyk dfFkr U;k; vke vkneh dh igq¡p ls ckgj vkSj vr`fIr dk dkj.k gSA lafoèkku dks f'k{kk dk fgLlk u cuus ds dkj.k yksdra= ds ^yksd^ rd ;g igq¡pk Hkh ugha gSA ;gk¡ Hkh jktuhfrd nyksa dh uh;r ij lansg iSnk gksrk gS fd os ,slk tku cw>dj gksus ugha ns jgs gaS D;ksafd le>nkj vkneh vfèkdkj ds izfr tkx:d gks tkrk gSA vkSj jktuhfr nyksa dk ikl muds vfèkdkjksa ,oa t:jrksa dks iwjk djus dh rkdr ugha gS bl dkj.k mUgsa yxkrkj xqejkg j[kk tk;s] ;g iz;kl pyrk jgrk gSA
ekuoh; vkpj.k dk vFkZ ekuo ds leLr dk;Z ,oa leLr O;ogkj gSA ekuo ds leL; dk;Z dk rkRi;Z gSa] f'k{kk&laLdkj] U;k;&lqj{kk] fofue;&dks"k] mRiknu&dk;Z] LokLF;&la;e tcfd leLr ekuoh; O;ogkj ds ewy esa uSfrdrk] pfj= vkSj ewY; gSaA ^^uSfrdrk** ru] eu] èku] :ih vFkZ ds lnqi;ksx ds :i esa rFkk ^pfj=* Loiq:"k@Loukjh ds lkFk Átuu dk;Z] Loèku dk mi;ksx o miHkksx rFkk lacaèk o lEidZ esa n;kiw.kZ dk;Z&O;ogkj ls gh fuf'pr fd;k tkrk jgk gSA tcfd leLr lacaèkksa ds fuokZg ds fy;s ^ewY;ksa* esa thuk gh O;ogkj ,oa ekuoh;rk gSaA ewY;ksa ds fcuk lkekftdrk ,oa ekuoh;rk dks ifjHkkf"kr ugha fd;k tk ldrk gSA viuh&viuh iw.kZrk ds fy;s nwljs ls vuqcafèkr gksuk gh lacaèk gSA ^lacaèk^ dk iz;kstu] tkxzfriw.kZrk] fodkliw.kZrk vkSj vkpj.kiw.kZrk ds :i esa gSA
ekuo esa ewY;ksa dh ikap Jsf.k;ka gSA LFkkfir ewY; ¼fo'okl] lEeku] Áse] J)k] fo'okl vkfn½] f'k"V ewY; ¼lgtrk] ljyrk] lkStU;rk] vUu;rk vkfn f'k"Vkpkj ds fy;s½] ekuo ewY; èkhjrk ¼U;k; ds Áfr fu"Bk½] ohjrk ¼U;k; fnykus 'kfDr;ksa dk fu;kstu½] mnkjrk n;k] —ik vkSj d:.kk ds :i esa gSA n;k dk vFkZ gS vHkkoxzLr dks oLrq miyCèk djkukA —ik dk vFkZ gS vik= dks ik= cukukA d:.kk dk vFkZ gS ik=rk ,oa oLrq nksuksa miyCèk djkuk gSA thouewY; lq[k] 'kkafr] larks"k] vkuan ds :i esa gSaA tcfd oLrq dk ewY; dykewY; vkSj mi;ksfxrk ewY; ds :i esa gSA ekuoh; vkpj.k ls lkekftdrk] ekuoh;rk vkSj O;oLFkk dk tUe gksrk gSA ekuoh; vkpj.k dks le>s fcuk lkekftd VwVu] lŸkk }an] fgalk&vkrad] vfLFkjrk&vjktdrk vkSj vU;k;&vuhfr ls eqfDr laHko ugha gSA i=dkfjrk dks ;fn Ápkj ek= ugha cukuk gS rks U;k;] Lora=rk] lerk] O;oLFkk] ewY;] pfj=] uSfrdrk :ih fofèk&foèkku ,oa lafoèkku dks le>uk ,oa lEÁsf"kr djuk gksxkA rHkh LojkT; O;oLFkk dh vkèkkjHkwfe rS;kj gks ldrh gSA
ekuo dks vkSj ekuoh; vkdka{kk] ekuo y{;] ekuoh; vkpj.k] ekuoh; n`f"V] ekuoh; LoHkko dks le>s fcuk ekuork ds Ádk'ku :ih i=dkfjrk] ekuork :ih O;oLFkk ds :i esa ekuoh; lafoèkku ,oa lkekftdrk ls lEiUu lekt dh dYiuk dSls dh tk ldrh gSa \ i=dkfjrk dks U;k;] Lora=rk] lerk] lafoèkku] ewY;] pfj=] uSfrdrk] dk;Z&O;ogkj] lacaèk vkfn dks ekuoh;rk ds Á;kstu esa ifjHkkf"kr dj muds vFkZ&vk'k; dh ,d:irk dk fuèkkZj.k djuk gksxkA rHkh lkFkZd ,oa iw.kZ lEÁs"k.k gks ldsxkA vkSj RkHkh i=dkfjrk :ih ekuoh; Je dk iz;kstu fodkliw.kZrk&tkxzfriw.kZrk ,oa lEiw.kZ lekèkku izkfIr ds :i esa lkFkZd vkSj lQy gks ldsxkA

*funs’kd] thou fo|k v?;;u dsUnz] lkseS;k fo|k fogkj] fo|kuxjh] fo|kfogkj, eqEcbZ
K.J. SOMAIYA COLLEGE OF ARTS AND COMMERCE
(GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR CELEBRATIONS 1959-2009)

UGC SPONSORED NATIONAL SEMINAR ON “HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS AND VALUES IN GLOBAL SOCIETY”

Organized By
Department Of Sociology and Jeevan Vidya Study Centrei
in collaboration with NGO – Population First
on 11-12 February, 2009





The Inaugural Function of the seminar was held on the 10th February, 2009 in the college prayer hall at 9:30 a.m. It was presided over by Dr. S.K. Somaiya, Chairman Somaiya Trust. The Chief Guest was Dr. Chandra Krishnamurthy, Vice-Chancellor, SNDT University. Dr. Nandkishore Nautiyal was the Guest of Honour. He is a renowned scholar, freedom fighter and ex-editor of Hindi Blitz. Also present was special invitee and Executive Trustee of Population First, Shri S.V. Sista who has extended their support to the seminar in the form of a collaboration. Smt. Leela Ben Kotak, Trustee, Somaiya Vidya Vihar also graced the occasion.
The function started with the college prayer followed by lighting of the lamp and a Sanskrit Invocation by Mrs. Mrunal Bhatt. Principal Dr. Sudha Vyas welcomed the guests followed by their felicitation. Then Dr. Suguna Rao, Head, Dept. of Sociology and Convener of the seminar elaborated on the theme of the seminar. In his speech,
Dr. Nandkishore Nautiyal stated that the cultivation of human values alone is education and only education can bring about human consciousness. Dr. Chandra Krishnamurthy spoke on education and its role in bridging the gap between genders. Mr. Sista applauded the Department of Sociology for having associated with their NGO for the last four year through activities of the students for the cause of the girl child. In his presidential address, Dr. Somaiyaji stated that although we need to hold our cultural traditions in high esteem, values can also be adapted to the present society. The function ended with a vote of thanks by Mrs. Chandra P.
First Session on 11th February was on the theme “Gender Equality through Development of Human Consciousness and Values”. The guest speakers on this day included Dr. Sandeep Pandey (Magsaysay Award Winner and social activist). He emphasized on the burning issues of present day society, such as the nuclear disarmament, communal conflicts and corporate theft of water. Dr. Pawan Gupta of Society for Integrated Development, Himalayas (SIDH) also addressed the gathering as one of the resource persons of the seminar. He spoke on the dilemma of development and felt that many times the solution to major problems also created new problems. Dr. S.K. Bhavani, educational consultant, Somaiya Vidyavihar was the guest of honour on this day. He congratulated the department and the college on choosing this topic for the seminar and hoped that the seminar would be successful in “quenching the thirst of inner self”.
The resource persons for session I included Smt. Anuradha Gupta and Smt. Sunita Pathak. Smt. Anuradha Gupta who is associated with the Society for Integrated Development – Himalayas, sought to connect education with happiness. According to her the issue of gender had to be tackled on an urgent basis. Smt. Sunita Pathak reiterated the need for moral code of conduct in present times.
Session II was on the theme “Role of Media in Developing Human Consciousness and Values in Democratic Society”. The resource persons for this session were Mrs. Laxmi Padmanabhan, a freelance journalist and guest faculty for journalism at various institutes in Mumbai and Ms. Jamuna Rangachari, assistant editor of monthly magazine – Life Positive. Both of them highlighted with examples the role of media in raising the level of human consciousness among the citizens. They emphasized that human consciousness is the greatest gift to mankind and like all gifts it is a double-edged sword which should be used judiciously. Dr. Surendra Pathak, director – Jeevan Vidya Study Centre and co-ordinator of the seminar also presented his views on the importance of values in the global society. The day ended with a skit on theme of corruption performed by the N.S.S. volunteers of this college.
The third session on the second day was on the theme “Developing Human Consciousness in Global Society”. The resource persons for this session were Dr. Pawan Gupta and Dr. A.L. Sharada, Director – Population First. Dr. Sharada stated that self-empowerment is connected with women’s empowerment and by changing our own values and perceptions we can change mindsets which can be facilitated by exchange of ideas.
The last part of the seminar consisted of an interactive session where the resource persons initiated the discussion on “Relevance of Values in Civil Society”. It became the highlight of the seminar as all delegates actively participated and expressed their opinions freely. One of the significant features of this seminar was the fact that fourteen students participated as delegates. There were fourteen papers in all out of which eleven delegates presented their papers. The seminar theme being inter-disciplinary and widely relevant could draw delegates from different disciplines (Sociology, Psychology, History, Education, Culture Studies and Philosophy) and places (Surat, Bangalore, Mussorie, Lucknow and Navi Mumbai).
The seminar concluded with the Valedictory Function which was held at 4 p.m. in the prayer hall. The chief guest for this function was Dr. V.N. Magare, Director – B.C.U.D. and Prof. A.P. Pradhan, Chief Academic Advisor, Somaiya Vidyavihar, was the guest of honour. Principal, Dr.Sudha Vyas welcomed the guests and also presented a historic review of this college and a life sketch of our Founder - Padma Bhushan, Late, Shri K.J. Somaiyaji, this being the Golden Jubilee Year of Somaiya Vidyavihar. After the felicitation of guests Mrs. Rohini Fadte read the proceedings of the seminar. Prof. A.P. Pradhan emphasized the role of Somaiya Vidyavihar in promoting and imparting value education through programmes. This was followed by the feedback session by a few student and teacher delegates. In his valedictory address, Dr. Magare congratulated the department and college in organizing such a seminar and appreciated the fact that a good number of students not only attended the whole seminar but also took part in the discussions. The seminar ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. Suguna Rao, Head, Dept. of Sociology and Convener of the seminar.


RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Most of the speakers in the seminar highlighted the significance of developing Human Consciousness and values in present education system.
Dr. Nandkishore Nautiyal emphasizing the relevance of Gandhism pointed out that although mankind was in the midst of two world wars ‘Ahimsa’ was being propagated and advocated by Gandhi. Today’s world too is facing similar tensions and tribulations for which inculcation of human consciousness and values among the individuals is the only solution.
Dr. Chandra Krishnamurthy spoke on education and its role in bridging the gap between genders. She suggested that all educational institutions should take up this issue on a priority basis.
Dr. Somaiya ji stated that although we need to hold our cultural traditions in high esteem, values can also be adapted to the present society. He stated that Somaiya Campus is inculcating human values through Pujya baba A Nagraj’s Jeevan Vidya, Mahapragya’s Jeevan Vigyan and teaching of Gita and ethics.
Dr. Sandeep Pendey very succinctly pointed out that rich become richer using corrupt practices while the poor can not progress using ethical means and methods which is very sad. He also criticized the casteism prevalent in Indian politics. In this regard he felt that Jeevan Vidya could help in promoting human consciousness among Indian and global societies.
Shri Pawan Gupta suggested that the curriculum and content of education is biased which needs to be remedied and felt that education should be brought closer to reality.
Smt. Anuradha Joshi pointed out that human consciousness and values should be inculcated right in the childhood at the primary level for removing gender inequality from society. She suggested that in this process several NGOs could lend a helping hand just as their own NGO SIDH was doing in Mussoorie.
Smt. Sunita Pathak elaborated on the theme of “Woman as a human being” . She suggested that gender is such an issue which can only be tackled by developing human consciousness in the individuals.
Ms Jamuna Rangachari highlighted the role of media in propagating sound values among individuals. Mrs. Laxmi Padmanabhan Also reiterated the same ideas and said that the Advertisements on media should play a responsible role in inculcating sound values.
Dr. A. L. Sharda the Youth of today could be motivated by the NGOs to undertake social responsibilities.
Various papers were presented by the delegates which echoed similar thoughts. Thus most participants agreed in principle that values should become a part of education, media, society and other sub-systems.






Profiles


1. SANDEEP PANDEY
Social Activist , Education: Ph.D. in Mechincal Engineering from Univeristy of California, Berkeley in 1992. (Dissertation: Control of Uncertain Dynamical Systems.)
Areas of Interest:
Education for underprivileged children, Human rights, Empowerment of marginalized communities, Struggles for strengthening Democracy, Right to Information for Transparency and Accountability, Right to Food, Employment Guarantee Scheme, People’s politics, Governance, Communal Harmony, Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, India Pakistan Friendship, Corporate Accountability
Work Experience:
(1) Study assignment at Princeton University, July-August, 2007 with ‘Program on Science and Global Security’ with the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy.
(2) Taught a 3 unit course on ‘Strengthening of Democracy at Grassroots in India,’ at Heinz School of Public Policy of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, July, 2007 (http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/global/2007/summer/building-democracy.shtml)
(3) Study on South Asia Nuclear Audit, Princeton Univeristy, Princeton, Summer of 2001 (with A.H. Nayyar).
(4) Community empowerment in rural areas of Hardoi district, India, since 2000.
(5) Grassroots work in rural areas of Ballia district, India, 1994 to 1998 in the area of education.
(6) Work with a construction workers’ cooperative and on communal harmony in Kanpur, India, 1992 to 1993.
(7) Teaching and Research at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, from 1992 to 1993 in Mechanical Engineering.
Writings:
(1) Various articles in Hindi and English newspapers from 1994 to present.
(2) South Asia Nuclear Audit, a report co-authored with A.H. Nayyar, a Pakistani Physicist.
(3) Anti-nuclear movements in India.
(4) Nuclear Options: Debating the future of nuclear weapons and energy in India.

Lectures: On nuclear disarmament at Indian Institutes of Technology, Kanpur, Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati, India.

Important Events: (1) Global Peace March for 1500 km in 88 days from Pokaran to Sarnath between 11th May and 6th August, 1999 with the objective of global nuclear disarmament and peace.
(2) March for Communal Harmony for 500 km in 26 days from Chitrakoot to Ayodhya between May and June, 2002 in the aftermath of violence in Gujarat and Godhra with the objective of containing spread of communal feelings.
(3) March to protest exploitation of underground water resources by Coca-Cola from Ballia to Varanasi between 15th November and 24th November, 2004.
(4) March for strengthening peace and friendship between India and Pakistan from Delhi to Multan between March 23rd to May 11th , 2005.
Affiliations:
(1) National Convenor, National Alliance of People’s Movements.
(2) President, People’s Union for Human Rights.
(3) Member, National Committee, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace.
(4) Former member, Central Advisory Board of Education, MHRD.
Publications
(1) ‘Robust Control Strategy for Take-Off Performance in a Windshear,’ Optimal Control Applications and Methods, Vol. 10, 1989 (with Y.H. Chen).
(2) ‘A Deterministic Control Design for Robot Manipulators,’ CAD, CAM, Robotics and Factories of the Future (B.L. Juneja, Chief Ed.), Vol. II, Tata-McGraw Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., New Delhi, Fourth International Conference on CAD, CAM, Robotics and Factories of the Future, IIT, Delhi, 1989.
(3) ‘Aircraft Control Under Conditions of Windshear,’ Control and Dynamic Systems (C.T. Leondes, Ed.), Vol. 34, Academic Press, 1990 (with G. Leitmann).
(4) ‘Uncertainty Bound-Based Hybrid Control for Robot Manipulators,’ IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 6, No. 3, June 1990 (with Y.H. Chen).
(5) ‘Deterministic Control for Robot Manipulators with Arbitrary Rate of Exponential Convergence,’ Intelligent Robotics (M. Vidyasagar and M. Trivedi, Eds.), Tata-McGraw Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., New Delhi, International Symposium on Intelligent Robotics, Bangalore, 1991 (with G. Leitmann).
(6) ‘Aircraft Control for Take-Off in Windshear,’ Dynamics and Control, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1991 (with V. Kaitala and G. Leitmann).
(7) ‘Aircraft Control for Flight in an Uncertain Environment: Take-Off in Windshear,’ Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Vol. 70, No. 1, 1991 (with G, Leitmann).
(8) ‘Deterministic Controllers for a Class of Mismatched Systems,’ ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, Vol. 116, March 1994.
Conferences
(1) ‘Robust Control Strategy for Take-Off Performance in a Windshear,’ American Control Conference, 1988, Atlanta, Georgia (with Y.H. Chen).
(2) ‘Real Time Dynamic Scaling of a Robust Manipulator in the Presence of Uncertainties,’ IEEE International Conference of Control and Applications, 1989, Jeruselam, Israel (with Y.H. Chen).
(3) ‘Robust Hybrid Control of Robot Manipulators,’ IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Scottsdale, Arizona, 1989; also at Fourth International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Columbus, Ohio, 1989 (with Y.H. Chen).
(4) ‘A Controller for a Class of Mismatched Uncertain Systems,’ IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Tampa, Florida, 1989 (with G. Leitmann).
(5) ‘Robust Aircraft Take-Off Control: A Comparison of Aircraft Performance under Different Windshear Conditions,’ Fourth International Symposium on Differential Games and Applications,’ Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland, 1990 (with V. Kaitala and G, Leitmann).
(6) ‘Aircraft Control for Flight in an Uncertain Environment: Takeoff in Windshear,’ Conference on Modeling and Control of Uncertain Systems, Sopron, Hungary, 1990 (with G, Leitmann).
(7) ‘Aircraft Control Under Conditions of Windshear,’ IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1990 (with G. Leitmann).
(8) ‘A Deterministic Controller for a New Class of Uncertain Systems,’ IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Brighton, UK, 1991 (with G. Leitmann)
(9) ‘Uncertain Nonlinear Systems Under Bounded Control,’ IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Brighton, UK, 1991 (with A.G. Soldatos).
(10) ‘Adaptive Control of Aircraft in Windshear,’ IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Brighton, UK, 1991 (with G. Leitmann and E.P. Ryan).
(11) ‘Comparative Study of Existing Biogas Plant Designs and Prospective Improvements for Increased Gas Yield,’ 9th National Convention of Mechanical Engineers, IIT Kanpur, 1993 (with Shishu Pal Singh, Sangeeta Kohli and Keshav Kant).


2. Ajay Jain : Profile

B Tech from IIT Delhi in Mechanical Engineering, passed out in 1992.
Joined Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) as Graduate Engineer Trainee.
Served GAIL till 2003,
Joined Hazira LNG Pvt Limited (HLPL) a joint venture of Shell and Total in 2003.
Presently working with HLPL as Head of Maintenance.

Been Lead Auditor and Management representative for ISO 14001, Environmental Management Systems, at GAIL, Hazira.
Am a keen student of Jeevan Vidya from1990. Came in contact of Baba in 1990 at IIT Delhi. Stron believer that JV is the likely solution for happiness of the mankind and well being of one and all.


3. Pawan Kumar Gupta

Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) from IIT Delhi (1976)
Work Experience:
Set up a medium sized industrial unit – a solvent extraction plant to extract oil from minor seeds in 1978 and ran it successfully in the capacity of Managing Director till 1987. The operations of the unit were in Calcutta (West Bengal) and Bihar.
Thereafter set up Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas (SIDH), a voluntary organization primarily to work in the field of education in the hill areas of Uttarakhand. SIDH was set up in 1989 as a registered society in Delhi in 1989. Founding Director of SIDH since its inception.

Started a number of innovative experiments in education specially with a view to contextualizing education to the local environment, building self confidence and self image in students and teachers. Many efforts in the field of running of schools, mentoring teachers, publications and research have been initiated successfully in the last 19 years.

Was part of a committee in NCERT during the preparation of National Curriculum Framework 2005.

Have served as consultant and Resource person in Mahila Samakhya, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and in the State Resource Group, Dept of Education, Uttarakhand.

Attended and read papers in seminars on Gender issues in Washington D.C. (USA) (2003) and on education in University of London (2000) and contributed a paper in Journal published after this seminar. Del

Organised a major conference in IIT Delhi in 2007 on value education.

Attended and delivered a lecture on Dharampal in Science Congress in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in 2007.

Organised several seminars on philosophy, science, education, Mahatma Gandhi and social issues from 1996 onwards. The themes were “Politics and Philosophy of modern Science and technology”; “Education, Modernity and Development”

Organized three major teachers conferences attended by more than 200 teachers and educators from all over the country.

Went on a teaching assignment to South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany in 2003 and also researched and organized an exhibition at SAI on Mahatma Gandhi on 30th January 2003.

Organised several youth camps and long and short courses for young people.

Conceived and conducted a year long residential course for youngsters by the name of Sanjeevani (1999-2003)

Research Studies:
Through SIDH have been involved in research in the field of education. Have conducted some seminal research which have been discussed in various forums, newspapers and magazines.

These research studies have been published in the name of “A Matter of Quality” - explores the contradiction between the expectations of parents from school and their aspirations from children and examines the reasons behind these contradictions which have their roots in colonial times;

“Child and Family” - explores the difference in behaviour of children coming from joint families and those coming from nuclear families and also studies the impact of money economy on the break up of families and on women;

“Text and Context”(yet to be published) explores the values hidden or in other words the underlying values which are embedded in our textbooks and which gets transmitted to the children. Textbooks from 6 different boards (CBSE, ICSE, U.P Board, Uttarakhand Board, Books followed by the Shishu Mandir, Vidya Mandir schools and Tamilnadu Board were examined. The study revealed that our books are defining who is “developed”, who is “backward”. A certain lifestyle (mainly inspired by the West) has come to represent our definitions of “developed” and “backward”.

Recently I led a team to do a baseline study of classroom transactions in government primary schools in two districts of Uttarakhand. The study was done at the behest of Azim Premji Foundation.

Recently nominated in February 2009 by Chief Minister, Government of MadhyaPradesh in the task force on “Health and Education”.

Publications:
Published several books for teachers – handbooks for teachers to help them contextualize teaching to the local environment.

“Jaunpur ke Ped Paudhe” a handbook to help teacher teach language (e.g. Hindi) by making the local environment (both geographical and cultural) the context of teaching language instead of only the textbook. The effort was also to integrate other subjects like geography, science, math and local dialect wherever possible.

“Itihas ki Samajh” a handbook to explain to the children the meaning of history in their lives; to explain the purpose behind the study of history, making them aware of their own (family, village, locality) history as well and to make them understand the role of perceptions in history. Recently the Chhatisgarh government has published 42,000 copies of this book for their schools.

“Dayaron Se Pare Kuchh Nazariye” a compilation of various articles published till 2003 in various national dailies like “Amar Ujala”, “Jansatta”, “Prabhat Khabar”, “Nav Bharat Times” etc.. The theme of the articles ranged from education, modernity, development and current affairs in Indian politics.

Edited “Mahilaon ke Mudde: Kuchh Apne Kuchh Paraye”

Edited works of Sri Dharampal the famous Gandhian scholar and historian. Compiled and edited two books containing articles written over last 45 yearsin varios newspapers, journals and papers read in seminars across the globe. “Bharat ki Pehchan” (in Hindi) and “Rediscovering India” (in English).

Published Dharampaljis other books like “The British Origin of Cow Slaughter in India” and “Collected Writings of Dharampal” (5 volumes)

Edited a book “Mahatma Gandhi Ek Punarvalokan”

“Quintessential Gandhi” A book emanating from the exhibition done in South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Regularly contribute articles on political, educational and social issues to national dailies like “Jansatta”, “Amar Ujala”, “Prabhat Khabar” and magazines like “Pratham Pravakta”, “Unaupcharika”; “srijan” etc.

Major interests:
Traditional Indian knowledge systems including spiritual knowledge and philosophy. Vippassana, Madhyastha Darshan, Mahatma Gandhi, Dharampal, studying the impact of modernity on human life in particular in the Indian context, major interests in finding out the fundamental belief systems of the West and India. Greatly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Dharampal and Madhyastha Darshan (as propounded by Sri A. Nagraj). Trying to explore oneself and dwelling on how to rejuvenate Indian society.


4. Anuradha Joshi

Anuradha Joshi, is a post graduate in Psychology and has about 12 years of teaching experience in schools and colleges. She has been involved in several research studies in industrial psychology with CMA and IIM Calcutta. She later worked as a research officer in the Institute of Yoga and Consciousness, Department of Psychology in Andhra University where she began working on her thesis on Vipassana meditation – which was left unfinished. However what she enjoys most is communicating her learning with little children as simply as possible with the help of rhyme, rhythm and music and her training in the Montessori method and music ( she has completed her B Muse in Hindustani vocal Classical Music ) has certainly helped her to accomplish this. Currently she is engaged in designing and implementing a module for primary school children about relationship with the self, the body, the other and nature.
In 1989 she decided along with her husband to start an innovative initiative in education. This led to the formation of SIDH (Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas). Since then she has been working in SIDH trying to work towards restoring quality in education and challenging the assumptions of mainstream education system and making it more sensitive towards the real issues facing our country. SIDH is located in Kempty, a small settlement north west of Mussoorie in the tribal area of Jaunpur in Tehri district of Uttarakhand.
In SIDH she has been instrumental in developing training modules, learning material for pre-primary school teachers and providing training to hundreds of such teachers from Uttarakhand as well as those coming from outside the state. She has worked closely with the UNICEF team and the State department towards providing training to anganwadi/ balwadi workers. Over the years she has trained a number of trainers who are now training teachers at the local level. The training module developed by her is unique, including a manual for balwadi worker, a diary for the balwadi worker, an activity calendar and planner and book of songs and poems written by Anuradha called “Paudha aur Main” as well as a cassette where the same songs have been composed and sung by her. This kit has been well received by a large number of organizations. The songs have become very popular and have been printed by Vani Prakashan, Daryagunj, Delhi.
She is deeply interested in women’s issues and trying to explore the similarities and differences in gender related issues between India and the West and has organized seminars to explore these issues. Her observations and learning from some of her friends from the Jaunpur villages raised many uncomfortable questions about the negative impact of current education upon their sustainable lifestyles. These questions also directed the course of SIDH’s journey in searching for meaningful education. Subsequently to take the debate forward she has been writing regularly in various journals, newspapers etc.
on these issues. A paper called “Learning in Villages today;Remainders or Reminders?”
published in Vimukt Shiksha (2001) and another paper entitled “Putting First Things First” for a conference for Gitam Institute Vishakapatnam (2004).
Anuradha has been instrumental in initiating a Mahila Mela on the 8th of March (International Women’s day) at Kempty, where SIDH is located. The idea took shape about 17 years ago and now has taken deep roots. The mela is now a yearly event and the local women have taken over the responsibility of organizing and planning the event. In this sense Anuradha has been instrumental in empowering the local women of Jaunpur (Tehri Garhwal district). Several other initiatives such as a yuvati manch (a space for young girls and women to voice their grievances, problems and seek solutions through deliberations), mahila manch (space for older women to gather together and discuss personal and community issues and find ways of intervening in the local politics and social sphere) owe their existence to Anuradha. Currently the women are getting together to rediscover their lost knowledge systems related to health and herbal medicines.
Her deep interest in gender issue led to SIDH developing a ‘Gender Training Module’. The module was based on field research to find out the deep rooted beliefs among both men/boys and women/girls about issues related to gender relations. Anuradha led the team to conduct the research and then designed the module based on the field research. A five day training was designed which as been given to more than 450 young people (girls and boys) from all over the country. The training module is unique in that it is based on actual field research and at times challenges not only the assumptions prevalent in the community but also those existing in the mind set of those conducting the training. The module has been well appreciated at both the national and international level. Anuradha has written and has been invited to present papers on this module at international seminars in Kathmandu, Washington and London.
She has deep interest in cultural studies and in exploring the relationship between cultural issues and education and gender relations. She has been leading and coordinating the research efforts at SIDH and several research studies have been carried out under her leadership. These research studies have impacted the educational effort of SIDH in a very profound manner and been instrumental in challenging the mainstream view on education. In 1998 she conducted a study “ Shikkha Chitro” (published by Save the Children ,Dacca) to explore the relevance of basic quality education in Bangladesh . Later in 1999, a similar study was conducted in SIDH called “A Matter of Quality” to study peoples’ perspectives about schooling. Even after so many years of independence. the western modes of research and their perceptions wield great influence in our academic world. SIDH has successfully challenged this through the “A Matter of Quality” which explored the contradictions prevalent in the minds of the parents regarding education and the educated. It explored the distinction between sapeksha (relative) self confidence based on comparison with the other and nirepeksha (absolute/ intrinsic) self confidence and suggested promotion of the intrinsic self confidence through education rather than promotion of competitiveness. Similarly another study of the various textbooks from different boards (ICSE, CBSE and other state level boards) revealed that they were full of hidden assumptions which molded the perception of the child in a particular manner to define “development” or who is developed and who is backward. The result is that outward appearance of clothes, language, life style etc. end up defining backwardness rather than the real values of happiness, satisfaction, understanding etc.. The child ends up becoming an imitator.
In 2001 Anuradha conducted “Child and Family” which was another study which elicited the fact that the family structure (joint and nuclear families) has a major impact on the education of the child as well as the wellbeing of the child and the mother. Enrolment in schools is often by perceived by many to be affected by variables of caste, gender, poverty, infrastructure etc. but there are hardly any studies which have chosen the joint and nuclear family as a variable and the impact of family structure in rural India upon the child. Under Anuradha’s leadership SIDH explored this factor and demonstrated that there are certain issues like the joint family which are peculiar to our culture. The research studies have successfully brought out some of the real issues concerning countries like India who have suffered the aftermath of colonial education where domination by alien rule for a long period has resulted in a deep sense of inferiority and doubt about our self worth. This has been one of the major contributions of Anuradha.
She supported a successful exhibition on Mahatma Gandhi, organized at the South Asian Institute in the University of Heidelberg, Germany. The exhibition was an attempt to break the stereotypical image of the Mahatma as a saint and instead show him as a person full of courage, fire and conviction. Subsequently a “Quintessential Gandhi” a book was published based on this exhibition.

Under her leadership and guidance SIDH now has an extremely competent team of youngsters who are training teachers (from pre primary level right till the elementary level). In 2000 she received the PHDCCI award for outstanding contribution for Social Welfare. She is also editing a journal called SIDH ARTHA which is exclusively dedicated to education and targeted towards three main stake holders – the child, the teacher and the parent. Today SIDH is taken very seriously by educationists in India and certain research organizations based in the West. SIDH is a self reflecting organization committed to promote human happiness through education. Anuradha has been contributing towards this goal in a major way.

5. Rakesh Gupta

Rakesh Gupta, presently residing at Bangalore - has been studying the proposal of Jeevan Vidya (madhyasth-darshan) in the guidance of its propounder Baba Shree A. Nagraj Sharma since 2004. He and his wife Priyanka, and their young daughter Gunjan are working towards designing their living accordingly, and become resourceful for others who want to study this proposal. He did his graduation from IIT Delhi in Computer Science and Engineering, and has worked for about 17 years in Telecommunication industry.

6. Dr. Surendra Kumar Pathak
Director, Jeevan Vidya Study Centre, Somaiya Vidyavihar, Mumbai, Academic qualifications: M. Tech. (Applied Geology,) M.J.M.C. Mass Communication & Journalism, Ph.D. Linguistics (Journalism) Inter-disciplinary Research, 20 years of teaching and professional work experiences in various universities, collages and media organizations.
7. Dr. Ashok H.S.
Is a Reader in Psychology at the Department of psychology, Bangalore University since 1984. He has a post graduate and a Doctoral degree in Industrial/Organizational psychology. His areas of academic interest are teaching and research in Psychology and he is currently guiding research projects related to Indian Psychology.
8. Ms. Jyothsna Kamath
Has a post graduate degree in Psychology. She is currently working as a UGC Junior Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology and is working on her doctoral research project comparing the Eastern and Western perspectives towards self-actualization.