By Jacob Peenikaparambil
Bengaluru, Feb 2, 2020: A three-day National Peace Convention ended at Bengaluru’s Christ University with participants committing to promote Gandhian and the core values of Indian Constitution to check division and hatred.
Around 470 delegates from 18 states reflected and discussed various challenges to peace in the light to the talks and sharing of experiences by persons making a difference in the society through their unique contribution.
The January 30-February 1 convention approved the “Bangalore Peace Declaration 2020” that lists various action plans for building peace and becoming agents of peace.
They include practice of the values of the Indian Constitution: pluralism, justice, equality, liberty and fraternity, is an essential requirement for peace.
“If political leaders become perpetrators of hatred and violence, the citizens are equally responsible because leaders come from the society and people elect them,” asserted the declaration that stresses positive use of anger to counter hatred and violence.
Asserting that peace is not absence of war, the convention called for removal of the causes that generate conflicts to establish peace.
It wants society to ensure the dignity of the individual and brotherhood. “Without the dignity of the individual there cannot be brotherhood and peace,” it asserted.
The declaration also deplored the tendency among most people in society to remain silent in the face of injustice and hate mongering.
“Keeping silence when we are expected to speak cannot be accepted,” it said and urged people to wake up from their complacency to demand accountability from their rulers.
“All efforts to divide the people of India in the name of caste, religion and language is a violation of the constitution and a violence to the millennial heritage of India, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (the world is one family).
The convention regretted that religions, which are expected to bring peace to the world, have often become causes of division, conflict and violence, because they have deviated from their original vision.
The convention wants women made equal partners in decision making process so that their feminine qualities could contribute greatly to establish peace.
The participants resolved to respect all faiths by learning about them and greeting the members of other faiths on their festival days.
They would avoid forwarding messages that hurt the sentiments of others and help and support the victims of natural and human-made disasters irrespective their faith, caste, and language.
They have resolved to read Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography and motivate others to do so.
Another resolution is to practice forgiveness and adopt non-violent means to resolve conflicts as well as to protest against injustice.
They would learn more about the Indian Constitution, especially its universal values and share them with others.
They would motivate people to discuss about the constitutional values in the Gram Sabha meetings and Gram Panchayat meetings. They would translate the preamble of the Indian Constitution into vernacular languages.
The convention wants schools and colleges to organize a peace seminar within a year for students, teachers and the parents. It urges education institutions to display the Preamble of the Constitution at common places and recite it at school assemblies at least once a week.
Schools and colleges are urged to form peace clubs and organize cultural programmes and peace rally on October 2 to promote Gandhian values.
The convention was organized by the Indore based National Peace Movement in collaboration with Christ University.