One world, one humanity, Bharat's bridge to peace

The 2024 Theme for the International Day of Peace is 'Cultivating a Culture of Peace'.

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This year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly's adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace This 5000 year old tradition has survived because it has countered, learned from, and assimilated elements from the various traditions it came across.

Other old traditions like those of Mesopotamia or Egypt, for example have not survived. This Great Tradition was then moulded by the likes of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, B.R.

Ambedkar, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, C Rajagopalachari-all iconic figures of India's Independence movement and their generation to fit the context of a modern nation state.

It both built upon, and deviated from, tenets of the ancient civilisation. These were Indians educated abroad, with wide exposure to ideas and experiences in many countries. This experience finds its place in the modern Idea in the acceptance of the basic tenet that all citizens are equal, and in the fundamental role given to democracy in the governance of the new nation. Both are new elements for the Great Tradition. It is an inclusive idea, in which people of all religions, languages, regions and castes are equal as citizens. The Rule of Law in a democracy would be supreme. No one was to be above the lawan unusual notion to most people in India, a society of great historical inequity.

India adopted universal suffrage before many modern countries, and it has stuck to this basic belief in spite of niggles in implementation.