VOL. XL NO. 27 PAGES 32 NEW DELHI 3 - 9 OCTOBER 2015 ` 8.00

MAHATMA GANDHI: LIFE AND HIS MESSAGEAparna Basu

S o much has already been said and written aboutMahatma Gandhi. The depth of his personality

and range of his work also make it difficult to decidewhat aspect of his life or work to focus on. There arefour aspects of his thought and message, which areof increasing relevance in today’s world.Tolerance, Pluralism

The first is his belief in tolerance. According tohim nobody has the monopoly of truth. Much of thesuffering endured by humanity during successiveepochs of history has been the result of bigotry. Theworld has never lacked persons who were convincednot only that they were right but that everyone elsewas wrong. From this, it is but a short step to believethat all countervailing ideologies or value systemsmust be destroyed.

Gandhi rejected this version of truth. He held thatno religion teaches intolerance. His prayers everymorning and evening were inter faith and consisted ofhymns from Hindu, Muslim, Christian and other reli-gious scriptures. He said that we must always appreci-ate and try to see the validity in our opponent’s point ofview. We must respect the right to dissent. No one hasthe right to force others to abandon their truth in favourof yours. From this sprang his belief in tolerance.

C.Rajagopachari known affectionately as Rajaji,differed from Gandhi on several issues. He wasagainst the launching of the Quit India movement in1942 and favoured the formation of Pakistan. ButGandhi had the greatest regard for him and he wasIndia’s first Indian Governor General. Ambedkar hadserious differences with Gandhi over untouchabilitybut it was Gandhi who insisted that Ambedkar shouldbe free India’s first Law Minister.

Gandhi held that Indian society was pluralistic. Itis an open civilization with permeable boundariesallowing new influences to flow in and vitalize the old.Over the centuries, Gandhi said, Indians “blendedwith one another with the utmost freedom and madeIndia a microcosm of the world.” “Our civilization is asynthesis of different cultures. It is neither Hindu,Muslim, Christian but a fusion of all of them.”

All his life Gandhi fought religious hatred and

worked for communal harmony and peace. Towardsthe end of his life this became his mission. He wentfrom village to village in Noakhali and then in Biharand from Bihar to Kolkata to extinguish the flames of

communal hatred. He firmly believed that India was aplural society. This is a message of Gandhi which isvery relevant today.Peaceful Resolution of Conflicts

The second aspect I want to emphasize isGandhi’s belief that conflicts should be resolvedpeacefully, in a non violent manner. Injustice must beopposed but not in a violent manner. When he wasthrown out of a train in Petermaritzberg in SouthAfrica, he could have suffered the humiliation withoutprotest. But Gandhi refused to board the compart-ment reserved for non Whites and walked all the wayto his destination. He evolved the technique ofSatyagraha which means truth force. It was not pas-sive resistance but active opposition to any form ofinjustice. In South Africa he used it to fight racial dis-crimination and in India to oppose British rule.

Gandhi’s concept of non violent protest, emphasison means as ends in themselves , the insistence onconversion of the opponent by persuasion rather thancoercion are recognized as valid and useable meth-ods in conflict situations. Discussion and persuasion,according to him, were better ways to deal with a con-flict situation. He laid stress on compromise, consen-sus, winning over the opponent, rather than overtclashes. Violence only leads to further violence, it is avicious circle therefore, avoid violence conflictand find out areas of agreement that could produce asettlement. If all such efforts fail, then one had tolaunch a satygraha and be prepared to bear all thesuffering involved.

Continued on page 32

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ADOLESCENTS & YOUTH: ENRICHING THEIR LIFE SKILLS

"Education is not preparation for life.Education is life itself... progressiveand experiential"

John DeweyThe word 'education' means differentthings to different people. It could meanupgrading one's skills in the context ofperformance, strengthening oneselfwith various qualities, enabling oneselffor better decision making and handlingconflicts and investing authoritythrough empowering oneself.

So "Education is a creation ofchoices, making people aware aboutthose choices and enabling them tomake use of those choices."

As education systems expand toempower youth, every nation, societyand community has to work towardspromoting a well being atmosphere.When adolescents acquire knowledge,attitudes, values and life skills, theybenefit in a variety of ways. Life skillshelp adolescents to make informed

decisions, solve problems, think criti-cally and creatively, communicateeffectively, build healthy relationships,empathize with others and cope withand manage their lives in a healthy andproductive manner. Such knowledgeand skills can lead to behaviours thatprevent disease and injury, fosterhealthy relationships and enable youngpeople to play leadership roles.

Moreover, the knowledge and lifeskills education imparted to young onesare likely to be passed on to their ownchildren, thus influencing future gener-

ations. We therefore need to effectivelyaddress a wide spectrum of issuesrelated to adolescence and youth in arapidly changing world. Why is there a need for Life SkillsEnrichment?

The host of factors that promotehigh risk behaviours such as alco-holism, drug abuse aggression, irre-sponsible sexual behaviours are bore-dom, rebellion, disorientation, peerpressure and curiosity. The psychologi-cal push factors such as the inability totackle emotional pain, conflicts, frustra-tions and anxieties about the future areoften the driving force for high riskbehaviour.

Life skills training is an efficacioustool for empowering the youth to actresponsibly, take initiative and takecontrol.

It is based on the assumption thatwhen young people are able to rise

Continued on page 32

Dr. Jitendra Nagpal

Chairperson, National Gandhi Museum, New Delhi

His WordsI could not be leading a religious life

unless I identified myself with thewhole of mankind, and that I could notdo unless I took part in politics. Thewhole gamut of man's activities todayconstitutes an indivisible whole. Youcannot divide social, economic, politi-cal and purely religious work intowatertight compartments. I do notknow any religion apart from humanactivity. It provides a moral basis to allother activities which they would oth-erwise lack, reducing life to a maze of'sound and fury signifying nothing'.

(Harijan, 24.12.1938)

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Probity in Public LifeOne of the most disturbing features

of contemporary Indian life is wide-spread corruption. Every day we readand hear of some new story. Gandhilaid the utmost importance to honestyin public life and imposed strict stan-dards on himself and all his followers.According to him a public servantshould never accept gifts from the pub-lic. In his Autobiography, he relates thestory of how on his departure fromSouth Africa, he was presented withgifts which included gold, silver andeven diamond ornaments. There wasone gold necklace for Kasturba whowished to keep it , not for herself , butto be given to her daughter-in-law in thefuture. Gandhi refused. He created atrust and left all the precious gifts to beused for the service of the community.

Every paisa he collected for publicfunds such as the Tilak Swaraj Fund, orthe Harijan Sevak Sangh was scrupu-lously accounted for. He trained themen who worked for him so that in theearly days of Independence corruptionwas rare. Gandhi did not care formoney. His needs were so few. He sim-

plified his life, ate the simplest food,wore a loin cloth and lived in a mud hut.

Gandhi placed great emphasis oncharacter building. “The first thing wehave to do is to improve our nationalcharacter. No revolution is possible tillwe build our national character”, hesaid. He continually emphasized theimportance of ethical values in our pub-lic life and practiced what he preached. Poverty Reduction

Gandhi held that poverty dehuman-izes human beings, undermines theirsense of dignity and self respect,wastes their potential and deprivestheir lives of all meaning and purpose.It is one of the worst forms of violencethat human beings can commit againstother human beings. The first duty ofthe state and society is to provide thebasic human needs to all its citizens.

“I will give you a talisman. Wheneveryou are in doubt, or when the selfbecomes too much with you, apply thefollowing test. Recall the face of thepoorest and weakest man you mayhave seen, and ask yourself if the stepyou contemplate is going to be of anyuse to him. Will he gain anything by it?Will it restore him to a control over hisown life and destiny? In other words, willit lead to Swaraj for the hungry and spir-itually starving millions? Then you will

find your doubts and your self meltaway.” His mission in life he said “was towipe every tear from every eye.”

After returning from South Africa,Gandhi spent a year travelling acrossIndia to study the condition of the poorand underprivileged. He identified him-self with the poor and took the vow ofvoluntary poverty.

Gandhi’s belief in tolerance, plural-ism, an open society shaped ournational movement. His idea of resolu-tion of conflicts by peaceful means, ofremoving poverty, of honesty in publiclife are all relevant in today’s world.

MAHATMA GANDHI: LIFE...Continued from page 1

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above emotional impasses arising fromdaily conflicts, entangled relationshipsand peer pressure, they are less likelyto resort to anti social or high riskbehaviours and grow up to be Aware,Responsible and empowered individu-als and harmonized citizens of a devel-oping nation.

Alvin Toffler in "The Third Wave"stated, "The illiterates of 21st centurywill not be those who can not read andwrite but those who cannot learn,unlearn and relearn".Definitions of Life Skills - the begin-ning of wisdom

What are life skills? Several defini-tions are compiled here from UNICEFand WHO to provide a wide-rangingperspective of the concept. Life skillshave been defined by the World HealthOrganization (WHO) as "the abilities foradaptive and positive behaviour thatenable individuals to deal effectivelywith the demands and challenges ofeveryday life".

UNICEF defines life skills-basededucation as basically being a behav-iour change or behaviour developmentapproach designed to address a bal-ance of three areas: knowledge, atti-tude and skills. The UNICEF definitionis based on research evidence thatshifts in risk behaviour are unlikely ifknowledge, attitudinal and skills basedcompetence is not addressed.

Life skills are essentially those abil-ities that help promote mental wellbeing and competence in young peopleas they face the realities of life.

Life Skills can be utilized in manyareas, issues, topics or subjects suchas in prevention of drug abuse, sexualviolence, teenage pregnancy,HIV/AIDS/ STD prevention, suicideprevention, etc. UNICEF extends itsuse further into consumer education,environmental education, peace edu-cation or education for development,livelihood and income generation,among others. In short, it empowersyoung people to take positive action toprotect themselves and to promotehealth and positive social relationships.

Components of Life SkillsWHO categorizes a core set of life skillsinto the following three components:a) Thinking skills - include self-

awareness, social awareness, goalsetting, problem solving and deci-sion-making. To be able to think crit-ically, information should be provid-ed in order to make informed deci-sions and choices. The skills to thinkcritically can also be developed ifthe teenagers are given the opportu-nity to look at different perspectivesof an issue, the pros and the cons ofmaking one decision over the otherand making them realize the nega-tive consequences of making hasty,unplanned decisions.

b) Social skills - include appreciat-ing/ validating others, work-ing with others andunderstanding theirroles, building positiverelationships withfriends and family, lis-tening and communi-cating effectively, takingresponsibility and copingwith stress. Social skills enablethe adolescents to be accepted insociety and to accept social norms,which provide foundation for adultsocial behaviour.

c) Negotiation skills - It means notonly negotiating with others butwith oneself as well. For effectivelynegotiating with others, one needsto know what one wants in life, isfirm on one's values and beliefsand can therefore say "no" toharmful behaviour and risky temp-tations.

A cascade strategy for disseminatingthe training is used in many countries.This is to say that people who take partin training sessions then go on to trainothers using the same, or a similar,training schedule. This model is advo-cated in so far as trained trainers cango on to train other teacher trainers,and so increase the availability of train-ing resources. Teachers/ life skills edu-cators should go through training ses-sions with a trained trainer. Care has tobe taken however, to maintain the qual-ity of the training at all levels.

Described in this way, skills that canbe said to be life skills are innumerable,

and the nature and definition of lifeskills are likely to differ across culturesand settings. However, analysis of thelife skills field suggests that there is acore set of skills that are at the heart ofskills-based initiatives for the promotionof the health and well-being of adoles-cents & youth. These are listed below:Decision-Making helps us to deal con-structively with decisions about ourlives. This can have consequences forhealth. It can teach people how toactively make decisions about theiractions in relation to healthy assess-ment of different options, and whateffects these different decisions arelikely to have.Problem Solving enables us to deal

constructively with problems in ourlives. Significant problems that

are left unresolved can causemental stress and give rise toaccompanying physical strain.Creative Thinking con-tributes to both decision mak-

ing and problem solving byenabling us to explore the avail-

able alternatives and various conse-quences of our actions or non-action. Ithelps us to look beyond our directexperience, and even if no problem isidentified, or no decision is to be made,creative thinking can help us torespond adaptively and with flexibilityto the situations of our daily lives.Critical Thinking is an ability to ana-lyze information and experiences in anobjective manner. Critical thinking cancontribute to health by helping us torecognize and assess the factors thatinfluence attitudes and behaviour, suchas values, peer pressure, and themedia.Effective Communication means thatwe are able to express ourselves, bothverbally and non-verbally, in a way thatis appropriate to our cultures and situa-tions. This means being able toexpress opinions and desires, but alsoneeds and fears. And it may meanbeing able to ask for advice and help ina time of need.Interpersonal Relationship skills helpus to relate in positive ways with thepeople we interact with. This may meanbeing able to make and keep friendlyrelationships, which can be of great

importance to our mental and socialwell being. It may mean keeping goodrelations with family members, whichare an important source of social sup-port. It may also mean being able toend relationships constructively.Self-Awareness includes our recogni-tion of ourselves, of our character, ofour strengths and weaknesses, desiresand dislikes. Developing self-aware-ness can help us to recognize when weare stressed or feel under pressure. Itis also often a prerequisite to effectivecommunication and interpersonal rela-tions, as well as for developing empa-thy for others.Empathy is the ability to understandwhat life is like for another person,even in a situation that we may not befamiliar with. Empathy can help us toaccept others, who may be very differ-ent from ourselves this can improvesocial interactions, especially, in situa-tions of ethnic or cultural diversity.Empathy can also help to encouragenurturing behaviour towards people inneed of care and assistance, or toler-ance, as is the case with AIDS suffer-ers, or people with mental disorders,who may be stigmatized and ostracizedby the very people they depend uponfor support.Coping with Stress is about recogniz-ing the sources of stress in our lives,recognizing how this affects us, andacting in ways that help to control ourlevels of stress. This may mean that wetake action to reduce the sources ofstress, for example, by makingchanges to our physical environment orlifestyle. Or it may mean learning howto relax, so that tensions created byunavoidable stress do not give rise tohealth problems.Life Skills

Enable adolescents & Youth tobehave in healthy ways. Adolescents & youth are activelyinvolved in a dynamic teaching andlearning process. Methods used include working insmall groups and pairs, brainstorm-ing, role play, games and debatesand youth leadership camp.

(The author is noted psychiatristand life skill expert. He can bereached at email: jnagpal10@gmail.com)

ADOLESCENTS & YOUTH...Continued from page 1

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