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By Mr. Mahendra Jain The year 2001 is going to commence soon. If we look back at the events that have gone by, we feel extremely sad in our hearts to note that the first year of the new millennium has been a year of violence and hatred. As the year 1999 drew close to an end the world watched in horror and helplessness the deplorable plight of the passengers of the ill-fated hijacked Indian Airlines plane. They were oscillating between life and death on account of the cruelty of the hijackers who were worked up into a frenzy, At the same time we saw innocent people being killed in large number in Sri Lanka in suicide bomb attacks being carried out systematically by some terrorist groups. In Chechanya too we saw genocide in the name of religion culminating in unpardonable human rights violence. Apart from the ghastly incidents of killing spree witnessed in all parts of the world, one appalling aspect of the growing trends of violence so far confined to family. state and nation was that it has entered the corridors of schools. In many schools of America teenagers resorted to gruesome shooting of classmates in a manner- that would melt even stony hearts. It is the innocent people who often fall a victim to such barbaric acts of some misguided and indoctrinated youths who ironically enough gladly die for a wrong cause. When the 80called religious leaders incite these youths to target the communities belonging to different faith traditions, we bow our heads in shame. Have we ever pondered over the causes of this drift of youths towards barbarity? Ifwe think over it seriously we will come to the conclusion that the education being imparted in schools and colleges is bereft of ethical values. Children imbibe good or bad quickly in formative years of their life. Their life and character can be moulded easily to conform to the ethical norms prevalent in a society if they are exposed to a congenial environment at school and at home. The education system of a country must have ahimsa as an integral part of its curricula. At present the educational policies have been so formulated in various countries that only the development of a child's Intelligence Quotient (lQ) is their goal. Unfortunately emotional intelligence has been lost sight of altogether despite the fact that it is the key to the success of a child and to the creation of a peaceful world. When I say that children, youths and even adults need orientation and training in nonviolence I mean that efforts must be made to enhance the emotional intelligence of children. The present educational system focuses only on imparting knowledge and information. It is silent as to the strategies to be adopted in preparing and equipping the child to use the knowledge and information in a just and ethical manner on which depends our survival. We have so far been taught and trained to kill and destroy but not to save and preserve. The result is that the world today stands on the mouth of a volcano. Those who have been concerned about the possibility of another nuclear war have been stressing the urgency to impart training in nonviolence for quite sometime. Late Acharya Tulsi and Acharya Mahapragya - the two widely revered Jain saints who were in the forefront of mass campaigns to educate people in ahimsa inspired their followers to organize an international conference to discuss the question of training in nonviolence. So, ANUVIBHA shouldered the responsibility and organized the first ever international conference to evolve a system to train and orient people in nonviolence in February 1991 at Rajsamand near Udaipur (India). The conference attracted a large number of nonviolence volunteers, many of them were globally known for their work who after thoughtful and profound deliberations issued the following declaration: RAJSAMAND DECLARATION ON TRAINING IN NONVIOLENCE ( AHIMSA ) BELIEVING that it is our responsibility to discover the ways to avert the imminent catastrophe threatening our existence; RECOGNIZING that nonviolence (ahimsa) has in it a potential to resolve this crisis and it is time we gave serious thought to the question of training people in nonviolent action for social change and universal peace; BEARING in mind that the unity of the forces of peace and nonviolence is a must to meet the challenge of violence as enunciated in the recommendations in the Ladnun Declaration issued by the delegates of the First International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action held at Ladnun (Rajasthan), India from December 5 to 7, 1988; CONSIDERING that the Second International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action has been organized from February 17 to 21, 1991 as a follow-up action of the recommendations of the First ICPNA with the main aim of involving peace activists, theorists, scientists, spiritual leaders and persons concerned from all walks of life in formulating a universally acceptable programme of action for the orientation and training of people belonging to different ideologies, faiths and cultural traditions in ahimsa (nonviolence); EXPRESSING our heartfelt thanks to ANUVIBHA for its continuing leadership in this endeavour; We the citizens of the world hailing from all continents, who have assembled here... recognize that we have a common overriding goal of attaining peace and justice through nonviolent action. We offer the RAJSAMAND DECLARATION ON TRAINING IN NONVIOLENCE (AHIMSA) for peace and sustainable development in the form of the following observations; OBSERVATIONS NEED OF TRAINING IN NONVIOLENCE CONTENT OF THE TRAINING IN NONVIOLENCE STRATEGIES, TOOLS AND ORGANIZATION THE GLOBAL ROLE OF EDUCATION IN PEACE AND NONVIOLENCE The above declaration is unique in the sense that it provides a clear conceptual understanding as to what is actually meant by training in ahimsa. It suggests concrete steps to be initiated for training children as well as youths and adults in nonviolence. Though the declaration was adopted in 1991, it is yet to be implemented in consonance with its spirit. Some constructive efforts have been made by H. H. Acharya Mahapragya in this direction, Anuvrat Shikshak Sansad (Parliament of Teachers committed to Anuvrat Code of Conduct), an organizational wing of Anuvrat Movement, has organised a series of camps to train students and youths in nonviolence during the last six years. I am quite confident that if the other NGOs take cue from this example and join hands with ANUVIBHA for this great venture, Governments, UNO, UNESCO and other agencies launch a global campaign to train students and youths, the onward march of violence can be arrested and a solid foundation for the creation of a peaceful world can be laid. After the II ICPNA H.H. Acharya Tulsi and Acharya Mahapragya gave serious thought to the issue of designing a universal course for training people in ahimsa. After exchanging views with a large number of people connected with this field they proposed the following course of training in ahimsa : 1. Change of Heart: The Training of the Mind 2. Inculcation of Cosmic Values: A Holistic Perspective 3. The State of Good Health: A Prerequisite for the Growth of Nonviolence 4. Healthy Economy: A Must or the Ushering in of a Nonviolent Society 5. Transformation of Human Relationships VI Components of the Training in Ahimsa B. PRACTICAL TRAINING BASED INNOVATIVE EXPERIMENTS ON ------------------------------------------- Article
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