Clad in lily white saree in the order of a Sanyasin, Guruma Dr Arundhati Debi is like a sister Nivedita or like a Mother Teresa, who was inspired from her early childhood days by the ideals of Rama Devi, Annapurna Maharana and by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. She has renounced the world and is committed to ‘Sovaniya Shikshashram’ movement as ushered by her mentor and guide Kumar Bhai, who is now no more. She is Director, International School of Decency and Research, New Delhi, Chairperson, All India Sovaniya Youth Conference, Secretary, International Indecency Prevention Movement. She is also a member of Indo-Pak Friendship Association. She has brought out many reform-based magazines, books and periodicals and gifted to the society some eye-opening journals and documents like “The Yubasurya”, “The Yugasrasta” and “The Universal Truth” besides more than 2,000 articles in Odia and English dailies. Debiji, who thinks globally and acts locally, is a numero-uno community mobiliser and currently directing 46 ideal schools. Recently, she was in the news for bagging Honoris Causa (Doctorate) from the Utkal University on its convocation. In an interview to The Pioneer, she spoke to Sugyan Choudhury at the Sovaniya Shikshashram complex at Neeladri Vihar, Bhubaneswar.
What are the objectives of the Antarjatika Shovaniya Andolan or the International Indecency Prevention MovementIJ
The International Indecency Prevention Movement was founded in the year 1962. Its founder was Pujyashree Kumar Bhai. He had given a call to the denizens of the world as a whole to bring a blissful change in education, literature, art, audio, video, radio, cinema, in print and electronic media so that our taste will be elevated and our minds shall rise higher. The whole body of print and electronic media should be free from indecent pictures and writings.
How did Kumar Bhai come to start such a movementIJ
Kumar Bhai was born and brought up in an ideal backdrop and reared up by Reba Ray, a close disciple of Utkal Gaurav Madhusudan Das and the first woman to pass entrance or HSC examination from the Ravenshaw Collegiate School. She was Kumar Bhai’s grandmother. Once, while he had been to present day Mumbai in 1959, he was pained to see an audience intoxicated with a nearly nude dance of sister Vimla, who was dancing to the tune of a Western music. Young Kumar Bhai straightway walked into the stage and shouted at the audience ‘Kya app log aisa maa bahen ke nangeena dance ko dekh rehe hoIJ Aren’t you ashamedIJ’ The audience pelted stones that hurt Kumar Bhai’s head and blood came oozing out from his head. There were yelling cries, and immediately sister Vimla had gone behind and covering herself in a scarf fell prostrated at the feet of Kumar Bhai and made a vow not to perform such nude dances in future. Kumar Bhai returned from Mumbai and formed the International Indecency Prevention Movement (IIPM) on April 8, 1962. The meeting was convened on behalf of Kumar Bhai by Padmashri laxminarayan Sahoo wherein noted scientist and former Utkal University VC Dr PK Parija presided. This is how the IIPM was founded by Kumar Bhai, who is now no more.
How were you initiated into this movementIJ
I had passed my BSc examinations. By that time, in a summer vacation I wanted to spend my days in the ashram. It was here I came in contact with Kumar Bhaiji, whose words and ideas, philosophies and propositions attracted me so much so that I preferred to dedicate my entire life and career to such a noble mission. As Rama Devi and Annapurna Maharana were attracted by the call of Gandhiji in the freedom movement, just as sister Nivedita was drawn by the ideals of Swami Vivekananda, so also I was enticed by the ideals of Kumar Bhai. We are now running 46 such residential institutions besides such schools in New Delhi. I have not even gone to attend my father’s obsequies.
How are your educational instructions different from the general schoolsIJ
Kumar Bhaiji had done a conglomeration of Gopabandhu’s Satyabadi Vanavidyalaya, Tagore’s Santiniketan and modern scientific education of Gandhiji’s Sabarmati Ashram. The institution first came into being at Udayagiri, adjacent to Odisha’s diamond tourist quadrangle and an international Buddhist tourist spot at the border of Chandikhol of the undivided Cuttack district. later on, such schools were founded at Konarka and Rourkela. We are imparting Odia, English and Hindi language studies from the preprimary classes to standard 10. Besides the OBSE curriculum imparted by qualified and ideologically-committed teachers, we are also imparting instructions on yoga, asan, pranayam for physical, mental and spiritual development of the child through a holistic approach. We are also administering ways and instructions to improve the moral being and conscience of our students so as to make them ideal citizens. Besides, they are trained in stone-carving and sculptural works, paintings for development of their aesthetic sense and are also trained for development of their knowledge and skills in computer.
How can you tell your teachers a class apart from the general schoolsIJ
We recruit our teachers who are not only qualified but believe in the quintessential aspects of Indian culture and civilisation, those who believe in Vedas and Upanishadas and Geeta. There is no religious discrimination among our staffs, students and teachers. We are committed to building insaniyat or humanity. Our students say, ‘I am not a Hindu, not a Muslim, not a Christian, I am a human being’. Unless you are having teachers who are morally strong, how can you envisage a strong moral worldIJ
What are your further plans in this directionIJ
I am a student of science, but what I find today in the name of science is our future generations are getting themselves alienated from spirituality and getting lost in Godless materialism. Today we are living amidst endangered moral values, disarrayed social order, psychological incertitude, fallen beliefs and vanished ideals. All these are due to erosion of moral values and education from our curriculum. That is why we have programmes for World Peace and International Brotherhood, Introspection and Self-Purification, Honesty and Sincerity Development, Educational Reform and Research, International Centre of Ideal Education and Sovaniya Sikhyashram (schools of decency), Divine Children (orphange with best educational facility), Women’s Education and Women’s Welfare, Training Centre and Work Centre for Poor Helpless Women, Prevention of Indecent literature, Art, Drama, Journals, Publicity Materials, Radio, Video, TV and Films (by law and strong administrative and checking system), Health Education and Healthcare (doctor goes home with mobile health centre), Schools and Colleges for Creative Art, Music, Drama and Films, International Prayer Hall for all religions etc., etc.
What’s your message to the women societyIJ
Women play a pivotal role in the social and national sphere. They are the ideal mothers and sisters. There is a saying in Indian scriptures. ‘Gods dwell there, where women are worshipped’. But women in our present-day society are away from ethical values. Today, a young girl plays a Juliet to have a dozen Romeos while a boy plays a Romeo to have a dozen Juliets. Such boys and girls are spreading poisons to our social order and are presenting ‘tasteful poisons’ through their indecent postures, gestures, smiles through dance, drama, music and cinema. We must put an end to this for the herald of a Ramarajya or the dawn of the millennium.
What is your last dreamIJ
My last dream is to build a ‘Moral University’, where teachers, administrators, leaders could be trained in a higher moral order to infuse ethical values in their respective spheres of work. We need a bare minimum of 50 acres of land adjacent to Bhubaneswar for the purpose, but no one listens to our genuine demands. Our petitions and files are kept in cold storage while people with commercial interest are getting hundreds of acres of Government land for their traditional works sans any novelty.