Modi Government must try some of these out
Kumbh melas are associated with many things: From religion and tradition to commerce and crowds to Harvard studies and lost siblings. However, they are rarely seen as deliberative events, similar to the modern-day conference organised by think-tanks, even though, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned at the Vichar Kumbh in Ujjain last week, Kumbh melas in the olden days served a similar purpose. Of course, there was the religious aspect of the mela but the large gatherings were also an opportunity for leaders and thinkers to take stock of national developments and plan ahead. The melas were platforms for debate and discussion; fresh ideas were generated and action plans produced. Over time, however, this aspect of the Kumbh died out theparampara (ritual) of the fair remained, the pran (soul) was lost. This is where the Vichar Kumbh sought to make a course correction. The three-day conference organised on the sidelines of the Simhastha Kumbh in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, last week, brought together scholars and sages from all over India and abroad to deliberate on the right way of living. One example of how this played out was Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's announcement at one of the plenary sessions that his Government will set up a Ministry of Happiness on the lines of Gross National Happiness concept pioneered by Bhutan.
The conference focused on four key areas sanitation, agriculture, cottage industry, and women's empowerment but also dealt with cross-disciplinary subjects such as climate change, environmental conservation and sustainable development. Under sanitation, several speakers highlighted how cleanliness was a core element of the Indian civilisation even though today India’s public spaces are considered to be filthy. For example, long before the rest of the world started brushing their teeth, Indians were doing dant-manjan. The problem of open defecation and the Government's efforts to end the practice were also widely discussed. Even seers supported the slogan of toilets before temples. Notably, Chief Minister Chouhan highlighted that even though many districts had been declared Open Defecation Free, after the construction of a toilet in every household, not everyone had given up defecating in the open. This must draw attention to the bigger challenge of changing individual behaviour in ending open defecation. Under the agriculture sub-theme, the focus was largely on organic farming while the cottage industry segment advocated priority attention for small-scale and medium-scale enterprises, which will serve as the actual engines of economic growth, bringing jobs and prosperity to people. On women's empowerment, experts deliberated upon an internalised approach to feminism instead of the current Western approach which, according to some speakers, seeks to empower from the outside through external forces.