INTERVIEW

India Peace Centre of Nagpur is a unique institution. It has been engaged in orienting youth and students and members of various communities with skills in building peace and tolerance and through strengthening community relations. It was established in 1988 by a church but serves to integrate all communities by tying them with a common concern to establish peace and sustain it. Of its seven members, Gandhi Peace Foundation and World Council of Churches of Nagpur are its permanent members. The Centre was set up with three principal objectives of ensuring social justice, disarmament and to address ecological concern. Rather than rising on the eve of conflicts or when the passions are on the boil, the Centre has forged a strategy to work consistently to seek people's cooperation.

Maqbool Ahmed Siraj spoke to its secretary Mr. D. John Chelladurai recently.

Q: What is your modus operandi?

Chelladurai: Peace education is a continuous process. We provide peace education and training on a consistent basis. Dialogue training is an ever ongoing process at the Centre. We live in a heterogenous habitations. Even in normal situations, there could be conflict of interests in such situations just as there could be conflict between a husband and wife. If a couple stops speaking to each other, tension builds up at home. If you do not speak to your neighbour, you end up making arbitrary opinion about the person. We tend to harbour prejudices. Just because your neighbour happens to hail from Bihar, you should not conclude that he is a rustic person. He could have finer qualities than a person from a very advanced state or destination.

Secondly, we also tend to believe in rumours and stereotypes. We also endorse stereotypes without having or going into positive and personal information about individuals or people. So interaction is a prerequisite to maintain normalcy in a plural situation.

Q: What is your strategy for training and education in peace?

A: We have seven modules for promotion of dialogue. 1- People of cities are voracious consumers and city shops stock nearly 2,000 items of daily use. We go to grocers, hardware engineers, plumbers, electricians, masons, carpenters et al for either buying our daily needs or servicing or repairs. We go to them for our needs but do not communicate with them on personal level. We seldom use this channel for establishing a personal bond. It is here that we need to open channels of communication with them. This channel will be a reservoir of goodwill. 2- We organise discussions on common issues from all sections of people. By this we make personal ties stronger. 3- We meet to share social experiences. Charm of high ideals of a religion is not all that appeals to us. After all truthfulness, trust, integrity, honesty, accountability are cherished ideals of all religions. But listening to anecdotes as to how these ideals are translated into action is something very appealing to listen. So we invite all people to share their experiences. 4- There is emphasis on certain ideals in certain religions for instance vasudevam kutumbakkam in Hinduism, universal brotherhood of Islam and fellowship and congregation in Christianity. These make the religion more respectable to others and it injects warmth into ties. 5- We orient our students with various religions. Rituals of all religions carry some spirit. In a Gurdwara, people of high status could be seen cleaning shoes of common visitor and devotees and stacking them. This is a lesson in humility in the service of God and people. Hajj is an experience in commitment and sacrifice. Hindus go trekking to Himalayas on pilgrimages. Listening to all this. changes the perception about others' faith. 6- We also organise joint celebration of festivals to share and promote the spirit of camaraderie. 7- Fire-fighting is resorted when social conflict arises. People who have been trained with different modules during peace time, become a buffer during times of conflict. People restrain themselves from reacting in a passionate way when there are contending issues. They act as a buffer and cool the passions and promote understanding. We had experience of this when some people wanted to kick up passions during publication of outrageous cartoons by a Danish newspaper.

Q: How to reconcile differences when one faith bases itself on doctrine just the opposite of the other e.g., idolatry versus monotheism or slaughter of animal as a sign of sacrifice and ahimsa by another faith?

A: Spirit informing the doctrines of various faiths is all the same. The practices referred by you are material differences. Ritualistic differences are not primary in nature. Spirit is primary and sacred.

Q: How to promote camaraderie when a majority community feels privileged in a nation-state or feels more powerful in a democracy where dominant party has to reflect the opinion of the majority?

A: Nationalism or patriotism is a power game. We tend to associate ourselves with beautiful, wiser and bigger. It is a very relative perception. We say ours is a very ancient country/civilisation when it comes to Pakistan or Bangladesh. We do not use it with China. Any kind of parochialism is counterproductive for all of us, however stronger its basis might be.

Q: How has been the response in Nagpur?

A: We have a 500 strong body of social activists who can gather at a single call. They belong to all shades of opinion, Leftists, atheists, Muslims, Christians, right wingers, feminists etc. They have vowed to live down their own causes and differences for the sake of building peace. We have so far held 34 workshops across the country.

(Contact Address: D. John Chelladurai, India Peace Centre, C. K. Naidu Road, Civil Lines, Nagpur, Ph: 0712-2556952, 94219-25146. indiapeacecentre@yahoo.co.in)