[IMC-Editorial] [India Thinkers Net]Towards a Culture of Harmony and Peace

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From: "Gurvinder Singh" <guru_2001 at hotmail.com Date: Sat Dec 27, 2003 4:12pm Subject: Towards a Culture of Harmony and Peace 

“Towards a Culture of Harmony and Peace”
(In the Context of Globalisation, Communal Politics and Violence)

N. Murari Ballal

Unfortunately, the current language of secularism is a reductionist discourse, which fails to understand religion as a way of life. Due to their lack of understanding and total alienation from the true religious values, secularists really fail to take the challenge of fundamentalists effectively. In fact, both fundamentalists and secularists have no sense of sacred, and hence, are the two faces of the same coin, feeding each other. Steering clear through the woods of both fundamentalism and pseudo-secularism is the greatest challenge before us, which helps us to explore together our own “Madhyama Marga” (Middle Path). People accept us only when we have a fair amount of understanding of the core religious values, which can expose the hollowness of both the fundamentalists and the secularists,
and suggests alternatives.

Process of Homogenization:
1. Glogalisation

Both in our personal and collective lives, we seem to be today more under the spell of homogenisation of every human activity - even the religion and the culture - by the international economic, social and cultural forces. Popularly known as globalisation, it is openly forcing new political and economic orders through new forces of oppression and subordination. The basis of the new system is rooted as much in the exploitation of people’s knowledge and skills as it is in the exploitation of labour. This ought to cause us concern and anxiety, for it is likely to destroy not only our hard-earned political freedom, but also the time-tested indigenous ways of living, which reflect immense diversities in the spheres of economic, social, ecological and cultural lives. Globalisation encapsulates certain
forms of violence and accelerates and transforms other genres of violence in society. It also distorts the texts of discourse in such a way that corporate interests are valorised over community and individual concerns. Under the guise of efficiency many communities are declared unviable and become illegal in an economic sense. As a result the ‘commons’ lose out to the market, and the gifts of nature like land, water, food, even life are commercialised. Such acts of violence cannot be captured purely in the standard language of human rights. The globalisation is also a form of erasure, encouraging, obsolescence, exterminism, amnesia and forgetting as part of the contemporary way of life. As a result, the weak, the marginal and the dispossessed are removed from the field of discourse and action.
Such groups become instant non-citizens. Particularly in economic globalisation, it is the global market ethos that dominate over natural wisdom and ethical restraint that sustain and nourish life. Its version of developmental paradigm is the ultimate victor. It constructs an illusion at a breakneck speed, that there is only one possible way to human welfare, which is hoisted by the industrial society of the west, and ignores and excludes the innumerable other possibilities to human welfare that are available in the knowledge systems of traditional societies. As a consequence, prosperity has come to mean the prosperity of exclusion or pauperization of a larger segment of society in the modern developmental discourses. Nations, societies, and communities have been divided so markedly into two
civilizations on the lines of economic, political, technological, and military supremacy that it was not heard of in the history of mankind so far. Highly unequal and unjust exchanges of economic resources, information technology and even the basic necessities of life between the affluent and the poor nations have been marginalising two-thirds of the nations of the world turning them away into virtual destitution.

2. Cultural Nationalism, Communalism Closely associated with the globalisation, is the rise of racial memory and cultural nationalism. In a real sense, the categories we employ must be life giving and critically relevant. But unfortunately, in the India of our time, the nation-state, science and security rather than being categories of liberation, have become machines for the elimination of our people. The category of Nation-state homogenizes people to the slogan of one nation, one people, and even one religion. Such a process fails to understand the syncretic traditions of our society. In this context, the recent threats to the Darga at Baba Budangiri in Karnataka or Bhojshala in Madhya Pradesh are disturbing. The phase of rising fundamentalism in recent years raises the doubt in our mind
as to whether India’s version of modernity is communalism? Communalism as a process forges false bonds of religious unity while it blinds us to the current divisions of caste, creed and economics. Both Globalisation and Communalisation draw strength from each other for their sustenance as both of them try to control and dominate multi-layered societies through reducing the diverse life-systems and culture into a manageable few. Both of them believe in mono-global vision for their agenda of appropriation, and therefore, co-exist with perfect harmony. All these trends suggest to us that what is at stake today is the true spiritual heritage of multi-culturalism. Cultural amnesia and a sense of alienation has tremendous potential in its womb to unleash violence of all kinds, for, it is these uprooted
people who are easy targets of constant manipulation by various doctrines and dogmas, and by fanatic organizations which perpetrate hatred and violence. One has to see all these rightly, to recognize the innovative and healing powers of the Sacred.

3. Secularism: Reductionist Approach in Praxis

Unfortunately, the current language of secularism is a reductionist discourse, which fails to understand religion as a way of life. Due to their lack of understanding and total alienation from the true religious values, secularists really fail to take the challenge of fundamentalists effectively. In fact, both fundamentalists and secularists have no sense of sacred, and hence, are the two faces of the same coin, feeding each other. Steering clear through the woods of both fundamentalism and pseudo-secularism is the greatest challenge before us, which helps us to explore together our own “Madhyama Marga” (Middle Path). People accept us only when we have a fair amount of understanding of the core religious values, which can expose the hollowness of both the fundamentalists and the secularists,
and suggests alternatives.

II Gandhi: A Challenge to Homogenisation

1. Ordinary Life – the Repository of Truth and Diversity

It is my firm conviction that, in such a state of flux we have no option but to root our thinking in a form of life, which is unconditional. That is ordinary life, which Gandhi recreates in thought and practice. It becomes very important in the present context, to address these vital contemporary issues, which concern the entire life system, and discuss alternative human possibilities, against the backdrop of Gandhian challenge to the modern world process. Gandhi’s life symbolizes the quintessence of ordinary life of the common-folk which contains in its core all economic, social and spiritual wisdom that sustain, nurture and nourish life on earth with love, mutual care and co-operation, and hence, a constant source of inspiration. At the outset, it is appropriate to return with a spirit of
critical inquiry to our own people’s accumulated experiential traditional knowledge systems (with our diverse cultural traditions and Gandhi in mind) in order to explore whether there are wholesome alternatives to what appears inevitable in the world historical process. With a conviction, that ordinary life which is the ultimate answer to all human problems, we have to raise such questions as: Whatever has been claimed to be true in the modern world process so far, are they really true? Or, do they seem true because we have been brainwashed to think so by the subtly working euro-centered view of such systems of knowledge wearing the mask of universal truths? Is there a still greater need, greater than, perhaps, in pre-independent India, for continuing the struggle for liberation from the euro-centered
conditioning of the mind? Also we should have the courage to ask, as Gandhiji himself would have asked (in praxis, not just speculation), is Gandhism based on the profound truth of human experience in history? Or is it just a noble and idealistic aspiration? Which ultimately will have greater claim for truth – Gandhian notion of Swaraj or the modern world process? And finally, whether there is any space left still in the modern world process for preserving the ethical qualities of ‘Love’, ‘Compassion’, ‘Sharing’ and ‘Humanness’? Such an inquiry assumes crucial significance in this study, as the world of ideology to which we are committed - so committed that sometimes, some of us can die for it or inspire others to die in blind faith - may belong to the realm of mere desire rather than of truth.
One should live with these questions without hastening to find quick answers, which helps him to arrive at right understanding of the challenges of the modern world system, and equips to suggest alternatives, to the present day dominant discourses of globalisation, religious intolerance and violence.

1. An Exploration into Liberal Space in Religion

One such alternative occurs to me is to create a liberal space where people of all communities and cultural traditions could meet to rediscover what is common in all religions, and, explore the true spiritual values that are enshrined in all the religions. Every tradition has its own liberal space. We have to operate from the liberal secular space within each religion as critical insiders, not outsiders, to tackle religious fundamentalism. Already there have been attempts to appropriate these liberal spaces by the fundamentalists. It should be our primary concern, therefore, to identify a common liberal space within each tradition, and expand it to facilitate meaningful democratic negotiations, and try to bring as many young minds as possible into this fold. This exploration would facilitate
the communities to hold inter-religious dialogues continuously in order to reestablish the spirit of Harmony and Peace in this multi-cultural society; and also help reweave the society anew by healing the historical wounds of civilisational encounters within the country.

2. Civil Society – Ideal Premises for Peace and Harmony:

But, crystallization of this ideal of dealing with all the inter-societal and the intra-societal problems through democratic negotiations is possible only if there is an effective civil society. Any civil society, to effectively function in the matters of religion, however, has to:
1) Recognize the fact that to be religious is to be inter-religious; 
2) Explore into core religious liberal values; 3) Inculcate a ‘Sense of Sacred’ in every sentient beings; 4) Uphold the dignity of every human being; 5) Identify the area of sharing among inter-communities; 6) See the importance of listening to the ‘other’; 7) Understand the significance of the complete elimination of hegemony of one over the other under any circumstances; and, lastly; 8) Endeavor to establish the supremacy of religious plurality and spirituality over religious fanaticism.

3. Religion Vs Religiosity: Understanding the Distinction

If these aspects of civil society have to emerge as societal praxis in daily life, young people need to be primarily sensitized as well as encouraged to investigate the questions such as, what is a religious mind? What is the distinction between religion as a creed and true religiosity? Is there anything called Sacred in life untouched by the realm of the mind? What should be our primary concerns to restore mutual care, co-operation and love, which are not only the foundations of a civil society but also the concerns of true religiousness? It can be achieved through education.

4. Primordial Deluge in Modern Education: Necessary Precondition

But, the present structures of education are fundamentally deskilling and socially desensitizing, emphasize neither education for democracy nor the democratization of education. Globalisation falsifies participative democracy and deprives the choices and possibilities of a child; and, communalism is a violation of the dreams of childhood. Leave alone these complex issues, the prevailing educational practices do not make the children sensitive even to the simple problems of community life. They do not know how to take a correct view in response to some of the basic societal issues. The component of equipping children to understand the inner-dynamics of the society in which they live is totally missing.

5. Modest Agenda – Some Propositions

Radical Reorientation of Educational System: In the present educational context, which is heavily loaded towards teaching mere skills to make a living - the greatest challenge would be to incorporate the component of true learning that helps awakening of sensitivity leading to flowering of goodness in every child. This process of learning sensitizes children to discover the true values of life and understand, with a deep sense of responsibility, both the individual and the societal concerns. How to go about it? I intend to suggest a modest agenda towards radical reorientation of the educational system, which may open up some new areas of human understanding. For instance, the experiments of secularism within the context of multiculturalism, and dialogues about the non-violence and harmony may
be articulated in the idioms and language of our people; and the same may be grafted into the educational system. Open-ended experiments in re-orienting education to decommunalize it through sensitizing the young ones to see the truth as truth, false as false, and truth in false may be tried while being sensitive to the ethics of pedagogy and education. In a sense, it is an attempt to comprehend the nature of the violation of ordinary life, which is the repository of Truth, by globalisation and communalisation, and to seek modes of emancipation with Gandhi’s life. We may try to tie up Education, Ecology and Spirituality on the basis of the educational and holistic life-principles of J. Krishnamurti; and, integrate this with the societal and cultural politics of Gandhian kind, which is at once
humane and just.

Documentation of Liberal Traditions: To prepare the specific educational component with a deep concern that the honour of true spiritual tradition is at stake, we may have to explore into various religious texts and folk practices, the liberal traditions that sustain and nurture both individual and community life of harmony and peace; and cull out, codify and document these evidences in the form of a kit to make it available to both schools and also the groups working in the fields civil liberty, inter-religious harmony, secularism or any other field concerned with spreading the message of harmony and peace. This documentation helps people to understand clearly that religion recognizes the Sacredness of all life forms; and any violation of this principle under any circumstances is anti-religion.
It does not permit violence on life forms in any form in whatever provocative situation. All forms of violence are the desecration of the ‘Sacred’ and therefore irreligious; and, hence the perpetrators of violence are essentially anti-religious. Secondly, the documentation facilitates people to understand the distinction between the religion as a creed with its dogmas and beliefs, which inevitably creates “the other”, and hence divides; and, the religiousness which liberates, integrates, unifies both our interior and exterior lives for the greater common good. Thirdly, it may also sensitize people, to imbibe religion as a way of life that emphasizes values of truthfulness, love, mutual care, cooperation, austerity, non-accumulation, non-violence and simple life, and, to see through the falsity
in all the shoddy religious shows and jingoism masquerading as true religion.

Dissemination of Core Religious Values:

Creating “Centres” throughout the country for the purpose of pooling the ideas of wisdom through studies, dialogues and observing the praxis at respective local areas, and disseminating them at the grassroots may also be thought of. These Centres can evolve their own strategies to reach out to people by adopting the available cultural symbols, languages, and practices of the ordinary life, like Harikatha, Pravachana, Community Bhajans, Folk Theatre, and also arrange inter-religious dialogues and organize workshops to the concerned groups working in the field.


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