India has the experience of ‘learning to live together in a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic society’ for around two millennia. It could show the path to those who are facing the diversity issue for the first time. The challenge before India is to set its own home in order, get rid of minor skirmishes, and let the world utilise the experience
The 20th century witnessed the eclipse of colonialism and the gradual annihilation of imperialism. Transformative advances in science and technology were numerous, and these effectively contributed to reducing human drudgery and making life easier and better organised. On the darker side, humanity suffered two world wars in its first half. That triggered a global upsurge for peace and harmony. Numerous struggles for freedom and large people’s participation in them ignited the demand for basic human rights. What were earlier considered Utopian ideals of social justice, equity and equality of opportunity appeared within the reach of attainability. The learned amongst the leadership highlighted the precondition; such reforms would need a world of peace, harmony and mutual respect. It also needed faith and trust in dialogical practices.
The birth of the UNO — now UN — came as the manifestation of the intense desire for peace around the world, irrespective of the numerous diversities of umpteen kinds. No more wars, no more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki. No more violence, intimidation or exploitation. Human beings must learn to sit together, talk together, arrive at a consensus, and move ahead, make positive contributions in reshaping the world as a better place for the generations ahead. That is the human destiny, that is a necessary obligation, and every human being is supposed to comprehend it and play their role sincerely and dexterously.
Nature had blessed human beings and made them different from every other living species on several counts. Maybe, in the cosmic design, humans were expected to sustain the sensitive links between themselves and nature. It was best elaborated by MK Gandhi when he made that eternally relevant statement: nature has sufficient resources to meet the need of everyone, but not the greed of anyone. He went beyond this postulate and elaborated how everyone must prepare himself to delineate his personal responsibility and contributions.
This is so clearly articulated in a letter written by MK Gandhi on May 25, 1947, to the then Director General of UNESCO, Julian Huxley, who had requested his opinion on the Draft Charter of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. His response includes: “I learnt from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus, the very right to live accrues to us, only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world. From this one fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of Man and Woman and correlate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed.”
The history of persistent trampling of human rights and human dignity is indeed shocking. Slavery, untouchability, exploitation, sale and purchase of humans, gender inequality, social and cultural cruelty are included in the long list of inflictions of inhumanity on most of the people by much smaller numbers of raiders, attackers and invaders. There were also social and cultural discriminations within the communities and faiths.
It must be credited to a few thinking and sensitive individuals who pondered over such inhuman inflictions and had the courage to reject them. Think of Abraham Lincoln, think of Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Nelson Mandela, and several more. They could make others think about the injustice, biases and prejudices that were being ignored by societies and communities for ages, totally ignoring nature’s mandate on the ‘essential unity of all human beings’. They made people realise the difference between humanity and inhumanity! It is just impossible not to refer to Albert Einstein while talking about human rights, the basic ingredient on which the tower of global peace could be constructed. He was very clear that peace just can’t be nurtured and nourished on distrust, threats, arms race and an increase in defence forces. Peace could be strengthened only in an environment of mutual trust and faith in the sincerity of the other person or the party. Nelson Mandela powerfully stated that denying people their human rights challenges their very humanity, and that true freedom requires respecting and enhancing the freedom of others. Further, Einstein repeatedly pleaded that the world could move towards harmony, peace and mutual understanding only through firm faith in the equality of every human being, respecting individual human dignity, and removing all kinds of injustice at every stage. And in a world that became a global village in the 20th century, international cooperation could become a cementing factor.
In the second quarter of the 21st century, existing global conditions clearly indicate it is a fractured world, full of violence, distrust, extremism, religious fanaticism, fundamentalism, and an inhuman prioritising of the ever-increasing arms race. It would lead humanity nowhere. It has been repeatedly realised that a harmonious world could be created only when education is universalised. The content and pedagogy of education have to be so designed and transacted that the basic essentials of humanity are deeply internalised amongst the future generations. It was such thinking that led to the world’s resolution in March 1990 at Jomtien, Thailand, that education must be universalised before transitioning to the next millennium. Though not yet fully achieved, the Jomtien resolve greatly inspired global educational efforts in several countries. The curricula were also revised, and an approach to dynamism in education was accepted as the necessary parameter. UNESCO deserves kudos for its catalytic role played in all of such efforts. UNESCO has really established globally how true and sincere it has been to its motto: “Since wars begin in the minds of men and women, it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace must be constructed.”
The Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, popularly known as the Delors Commission Report, begins its first chapter under the title “Education: The Necessary Utopia”! Read it with the title of the Report: “Learning: The Treasure Within”, and things become very clear. This report highlighted how education in the 21st century is to be remodelled to respond to the fast-changing world of the 21st century. The focus must begin with the local community, environment, needs, potential and possibilities. But just this alone won’t be sufficient. It must help learners move towards a world society. The learner must comprehend how pertinent it is to realise the nuances of the global society. No community or nation could survive in isolation in the world of today. Global collaboration, mutual trust, mutual respect and adherence to the basic tenets of humanity of the inherent equality of human beings are the basic requirements.
Swift demographic changes due to several factors are leading to cultural and religious diversities coming face-to-face. India has the experience of ‘learning to live together in a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic society’ for around two millennia. It could show the path to those who are facing the diversity issue for the first time. The challenge before India is to set its own home in order, get rid of minor skirmishes that are avoidable, and let the world utilise the experience. It has to focus on its teachers and schools.
The Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, popularly known as the Delors Commission Report, begins its first chapter under the title “Education: The Necessary Utopia”! Read it with the title of the Report: “Learning: The Treasure Within”, and things become very clear
The writer is an educationist, a Padma Shri awardee, and works in religious amity and social cohesion; Views presented are personal.