APPLY NOW
ENQUIRE NOW
BROCHURE
CALL NOW
ONLINE COURSES
Looking for Online Courses - CLICK HERE
I

Helpline no. 0129-4259000

Helpline no. 0129-4259000

            ADMISSION_BROCHURE ONLINE COURSES

Themes

  • Alternative Politics: Gandhian Thought

Gandhi’s method of conflict resolution is based on a greater understanding and love between the two parties, to bring about a resolution to the conflict. To bring about a change, he prescribed the trusteeship formula and the weapon of nonviolent non-cooperation or Satyagraha. The ideal of love, truth & reconciliation forms the bedrock of Gandhian thought, to overcome hatred. Gandhi accepted the potentiality of various kinds of conflicts as occasions to contemplate over the confirmed problems and also as an opportunity to search for peaceful means to resolve them. The world is in dire need of this form of alternate dispute resolution, where fragile egos & violence rules roost. An attempt would be made by the panel to deliberate on the nuances of this approach, towards a fruitful convergence.

  • Role of Social Entrepreneurship in Alternative Politics

In developing nations, marginalized citizens as a tool of social & political transformation, is an area overlooked and underestimated in the realm of political thought. In order to ease the pinch of severe economic pressures and serve the need for social services, there needs to be an increasing opportunity, even in the absence of a public sector and, in some cases, consistent and reliable rule of law, to overcome the hurdles of vicious cycle of poverty & politics.

 The grassroots movements of Social Entrepreneurship are not an alternative to the public services and responsibilities of a democratic government. Rather, they can act as the first application of glue that temporarily helps bind together society during an unstable political transition. “Social innovations created by local citizens can provide governments with policy innovation in solving social and economic problems.” Such a settlement of political situations propels the innovative elements set in motion by entrepreneurs, to prompt governments in realizing their full sociopolitical capacity and create a reciprocal innovative system.

For a robust democratic future we have to find new ways to promote the budding examples of social entrepreneurship as a bridge to more secure and stable future. Social entrepreneurship is a stabilizing force, plugging the ensuing political vacuum. It reintegrates communities on the periphery—often hotbeds for violence—and gives them a stake in the new political landscape. Social entrepreneurship paints a new coat on a system that is stonewashed and cracked, but also changes the foundation, giving sidelined communities a chance to prosper. The chair would contemplate & deliberate on the aforementioned thought & try to churn it towards a synthesis.

 

  • Democracy, Liberty and Alternative Politics

Over the past decades, political scientists have been observing the changing patterns of political participation, which undermine traditional democratic theory and practice. The vast majority of democratic theory and deliberative democratic theory in particular, either implicitly or explicitly hinges around the need for widespread citizen participation. This requires that all citizens possess an opportunity to participate and optimize that opportunity However evidence suggests that many citizens do not have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the ways that democratic theorists require, and also do not participate in requisite numbers. Liberal democratic states in the 20th and early 21st Centuries have experienced ongoing changes resulting in declined citizen participation and trust, marginalization of citizens from democratic life, and the entrenchment of social and economic inequalities which have damaged democracy.

The Chair tries to dissect conventional wisdom that the future of democracy lies in encouraging more widespread participation. We deconstruct the strategies adopted by many states to increase participation, especially among the poor. The Chair also seeks to analyze citizen participation, as an alternative approach to introduce democratic outcomes, and satisfy the requirements of political equality & widespread participation by citizens, in conformance with the constitutional requirements & rights

  • Alternative Politics: Truth and Reconciliation (Nelson Mandela Model)

 

In a world stricken with strife & violence the wider world has still not fully appreciated South Africa’s reasonably peaceful transition from repression to democracy. The success of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to inclusiveness was due to a miracle: the moral colossus named Nelson Mandela, whose calm and sagacity, and his status as an icon of forgiveness, compassion, magnanimity and reconciliation, guided South Africa through its rebirth, setting in motion a liberating revolution.

Not to forget South Africans, it was truly their self-discipline, simple decency, and ability to forgive that prevented a bloodbath. In their example is a model for other troubled parts of the world to follow. Truth and Reconciliation Commission model allowed those who had committed great crimes under apartheid to confess their acts openly and thus avoid prosecution. Truth, not punishment, was to bring about healing. Throughout the world, Truth & Reconciliation model is regarded highly and considered a benchmark against which other efforts to move from dictatorship to democracy. The nobility of spirit displayed by people as victims of gruesome atrocities who forgave their tormentors, and even embraced them on occasion, was a first of its kind. The TRC helped to open festering wounds, cleanse them, and pour balm on them to help in healing all of South Africa’s people.

The lesson of South Africa’s transition is that no divided country/region/state/family has a future if it insists on going forward without truth and forgiveness. Literally, the truth can set us free to be at peace with ourselves, and that’s the healing panacea, the Chair is deliberating upon.

  • Religion, Spirituality and World Peace

All religions have a common thread of propagating human values, brotherhood and peace. However, religions also have been the source of most conflicts and genocides in world history. Resolving this inherent dichotomy of religion being the source of peace as well as conflict is very important in deriving sustainable long term peace in the world. It is here that ‘spirituality’ may become the deciding factor in tilting the scales in favour of using religion as a tool for world peace.

India, as the fountainhead of spirituality in the world, and with its global ideas like ‘VasudevKutumbakam’ thus holds the highest responsibility in staying true to its inherent spiritual wisdom and propagating it across the world and solving its intractable disputes. Spirituality as an idea can span across all religions and can straddle different ideas as a binding force towards propagating of human rights, towards conflict resolution and towards reconciliation for a common future

 

  • Modern Education in Maintenance of Peace and Sustainability

Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report which says – “Sustainable development is development that meetsthe needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Education for Peace and Sustainability encourages youth to acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future incorporating sensitization of challenges like climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption. Competencies like critical thinking, imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a collaborative way is the key to this exercise. Modern Education needs to allow individuals to be collaborators and creators of authentic solutions to global problems as they emerge over time, and more importantly, inculcate in them a strong sense and desire of learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be; and in promoting peace as a tool for a sustainable earth.

  • Accommodation of Diversities and Resolution of Conflicts

The Indian Constitution recognises diversities by providing collectiveness in its formal democratic structures. Special provisions guarantee an affirmative action in eight broad categories of diversities – caste, class, tribe, backwardness, religion, region, sex and language. The Indian nationhood has accommodated the above within its quasi-federal structure. Across the world, federalism thus has been a tool towards conflict-resolution, peace-building and democratization in deeply divided heterogeneous societies. Accommodating diversities is a process that starts at the micro level from the smallest unit of a family, neighborhood, societies, to small businesses, to large corporate, to government bodies and on to the nation, and the world as a whole. Conversely, the approach can also be top-down with diversity starting at the highest echelons of decision making down to the business, societal and familial levels. Via the Chair, we strive to understand the dichotomy of this thought.

 

  • Peace through a Gender Lens: Role of Women in Conflict Resolution

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (S/RES/1325), on women, peace, and security, was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council in 2000, which acknowledged the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women and girls. It calls “for the adoption of a gender perspective to consider the special needs of women and girls during conflict, repatriation and resettlement, rehabilitation, reintegration, and post-conflict reconstruction”.

It is widely accepted that women, as compared to men, are naturally disposed toward peace. Traditionally, as per the binary notion of gender stereotypes, women are characterized as maternal, nurturing, and gentle; whereas men are seen by many as having more propensity for violence and belligerence. As per such notions, while women tend to talk over their issues, men tend to resolve conflict physically in aggression. Regardless of the correct-ness of such notions, the world needs to take note of the fact that women, who are half of the world’s population, bear a large human cost of casualties imposed by conflicts amongst men and they ought to be given a larger role in resolution of such conflicts so as to obviate their sufferings.

Skip to content