Jai Jagat: 365 day march for peace and justice
New Delhi, 2 October 2019 - Two
hundred people will march out of Rajghat (the place where Mahatma
Gandhi’s remains have been buried) in New Delhi and begin a long 365-day
march to
Geneva to bring nonviolence (ahimsa) to international
policy-makers and other stakeholders. This is a historic act and
signifies that even today, a nonviolent peace force can be assembled
from a motley group of people from various backgrounds -- mostly from
India and also outside – and that they can bring a sobriety and
reverence to peace with justice in an effort to call for the survival of
our planet, human beings and all living things.
The “white and green” flags swirling in the wind, reminds us of the
meaning of Jai Jagat as: “All for the Planet and One Planet for All”. It
brings forward an ecological consciousness to our common destiny
recognizing the fragility of that destiny in the face of many of the
conflicts that have been created today. With the current development
paradigm today outstripping the earth’s resources, it was believed by
all governments and civil society that only by adopting ‘sustainability’
as central to international development by laying out the17 sustainable
development goals (SDGs), could social inclusion be guaranteed –“No one
left behind”.
This combined with the Gandhi perspective of applying nonviolence is
the core message of the Jai Jagat Global Peace March. Spelled out in a
thirty page document entitled “The Green and White Book: The Jai Jagat
Manifesto” this provides the core messages for holding such a huge
global action. (See www.jaijagat2020.org. )
This Global Peace March will travel through India four months
visiting many important points that forms Gandhi’s legacy. The final
destination in Seva Gram near Wardha is where many incidents of the
Indian Freedom struggle were born and from where the global Gandhi
became known. This was in the subsequent struggles of Martin Luther King
in the American civil rights movement, and Nelson Mandela’s acts of
toppling apartheid in South Africa.
In early February 2020, the march would travel to Iran and then
proceed through the South Caucuses (Armenia/Georgia) and then after
crossing the Black Sea, and marching through four Balkan States would
arrive in Italy followed by Switzerland. Friends in the post-Soviet
republics and the eastern European states are interested to understand
the Indian experience of non-Alignment. In Armenia and Georgia Gandhi
Foundations have been set up and they are leading the way to show how swaraj or self-reliance is important in areas of the world where geopolitical struggles occur.
One of the main parts of the march will be holding “trainings on the
road” on nonviolence (eight in India and sixteen internationally. In the
process Gandhi’s notion of sarvodaya (‘well-being to all’ or
‘social inclusion’) will be highlighted and this will help the core
walkers to see how effectively the SDGs are being implemented in the
countries through which they travel.
There have been many marches in history but few where a core of
walkers are speaking about ‘peace with justice’ and creating a site of
learning of nonviolence on the road. |
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