Aktivitäten
31. Juli 2009
SAVE India - Schools Against Violent Extremism is taking off
Teachers´ and Students´ Voices
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab is today a famous man. He is an internationally recognized face. His name is synonymous with terror. Ajmal Amir Kasab is the only Mumbai attacker captured alive by the Mumbai police and is undergoing his trial currently.
Kasab has recently confessed that he is a Pakistani National and had received arms training in Pakistan along with 25 other youth from similar backgrounds. Kasab is a young boy with aspirations on any youth around the world. He wanted to do something, he wanted to be famous, he wanted money, and he wanted to live a life of comfort. The differentiator however was that he was poor, he was uneducated and he was unemployed. His parents could not meet his demands and the social security and social networks did not provide him any solace.
During his recent interrogation he confessed that he was a lose end and he met members of an extremist organization who gave him a purpose. His only way to meet some of his aspirations was Jihad which was simplified "it is about killing and getting killed and becoming famous." When his interrogators asked him the meaning of Jihad, he said "Come, kill and die after a killing spree. By this one will become famous and will also make Allah proud."
Kasab was promised that if he would succeed in his mission to kill his family would be given 100,000 rupees. Poor Kasab feel into the trap with 25 other village boys like himself. Kasab is not a very religious boy. He does not know much about either Islam or its tenets. He is not a mercenary either. He is a boy who has no purpose or direction in life. For a little money he is willing to change his loyalties. During the interrogation he told the police, "If you give me regular meals and money I will do the same for you that I did for them.”
Neha has been following the reports on the trial of Kasab very closely. She is aghast with his confessions. “What kind of a person is he? His conscience did not prick him even once? How can you kill so many people for money? The very fact that such people exist is scares me no end”, she says.
Rakesh Chandra, Professor of Philosophy, University of Lucknow says, ‘An uneducated and unemployed serves as cannon fodder to the extremist organizations”. “It is not caste or a communal issue; it is a problem of lack of education and opportunities. It is the lack of urban services in the rural areas that widens the divide between reality and aspirations. It is injustices which the system has not been able to resolve”, he adds.
Ujan , a student of History in Delhi University feels that Kasab represents all that is wrong with our system. He also feels that there are many who may have education but would lack knowledge and with that would also lack conviction. For Ujan the problem is that there are many Kasab’s moving around in our immediate environment and he is afraid that a Mumbai can be repeated anywhere at anytime.
Ila Bharadwaj a teacher in La martiniere Girls School, says, “It is very disturbing to see the young enjoying violence. They have become desensitized. They see it at home, on the streets, in films, in video games and in the society. What we need is more understanding and tolerance for each other. When we were students we were given valued based education, we had discussions in class about right and wrong, about peace and violence about love etc. Today the pressure of studies and the competition has made it impossible for schools to devote that kind of time on value based education”.
Agreeing to this Anju, a student of History feels that as you grow older, the environment in which you have grown up plays a very important role. “Your beliefs and convictions get stronger and so does your idea of right and wrong. Apparently people like Kasab are immune to violence because that is what they must have seen all through their growing up years. May be Kasab could have been stopped when he had gone to take his mothers blessings before he set off on Mission Mumbai.”
Quoting Burton Russel, Chandra says, ‘If death does not disturb you, then what is the purpose of education- if it does not enlighten you, if does not make you see humanity in your immediate environment then we need to rethink.”
Attributing terror to one particular community and one particular form of education is totally unjustified. “After all if you take the case of India, then only 9% Muslim children go to Madarsas. More girls go to Madarsas than boys. Instead of blaming each other what we need to emphasize on is that your name may be different from mine but what we need to have in common is empathy, social skills and courage to stand up for what is right”, says Sajid a student of English Honours in Delhi University.
Chandra says,”We need to look at conflict resolution within the minds of our students. When we can’t live in peace with our own brothers then how can we talk peace between India and Pakistan? If only we can learn to love our lust for power and would end”.
"Respect for each other and giving space to a different point of view should be re-enforced in children at every stage of their lives” says Shalini Mathur, an activist.
Many of the faculty members and teachers that we met in Delhi and Lucknow feel that there is a need for a foundation course on peace education. Prof Chandra says,” We have to look at a course in peace education. It is important to share the commonalities in religious texts and break myths that fuel differences and tensions between individuals, communities, societies and nations.”
