Elements of social harmony

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Elements of social harmony

Since antiquity, all religions, cultures and societies have provided for living in harmony. It is actually the fundamental law of creation and continues to govern our life. Etymologically, harmony means ‘joint’. It is understood as ‘binding together and being in concord with one another and the cosmos and in the context of communities of different thoughts and belief – be it social, economic, political and ecological’. It simply means living with unity and mutual reciprocity, beyond class, caste, creed, religion and gender barriers. Violence erupt whenever the communal harmony is disturbed.

Constitution

The Indian Constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949 and came into force on January 26, 1950. It was the brainchild of the Constituent Assembly, indirectly elected by the people of the country in 1946. The Constituent Assembly reflected the ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse groups that made up India. The framers of the Indian Constitution emphasized the objective of fraternity in the preamble in order to ensure both the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation.

Initiatives Taken by Government for Maintaining Peace and Harmony

It is the duty of the government to maintain the peace and harmony in the society. In this direction time to time the Government of India has taken some initiatives to promote communal harmony amongst citizens of the country. In 1960 the Government constituted the National Integration Council (NIC) as well as in 1992, the National Foundation for Communal Harmony.

The Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1988 was enacted by the Parliament for maintaining the sanctity of religious places and to prevent their misuse for political, criminal, subversive or communal purposes. Under this law, it is the duty of the manager to inform the police in the event of misuse of the place of worship. The Act also prohibits the storage of arms and ammunition inside any place of worship.

 

 

Cultural plurism and harmony

Present world is a global world. People are being migrated from one country to another country of different culture and social tradition. Sometimes the migrants mix up themselves with the new culture prevailing in the society. But in most cases people try to preserve their own culture and at the same time demand for the recognition of their identity, and accommodation of their cultural differences. This is often phrased as the challenge of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is also identified with equal weight age as cultural pluralism.

Multiculturalism emphasizes upon the autonomy and paternalism of an individual as well as community. In this respect the expectation is that the people of dominating culture should create laws and environment so that the autonomy of the minority is secured.The oppression and the tyranny, dominance by the larger culture are also factors for social unrest.

Media and harmony

Media is to serve the people with news, views, comments and information on matters of public interest in a fair, accurate, unbiased and decent manner and language. It has assumed the foremost importance in society and governance it cannot lose sight of its duties and obligations. The media is mandated to follow certain ethics in collecting and disseminating the information by ensuring authenticity of the news, use of restrained and socially acceptable language keeping in mind its cascading effect on the society and on the individuals and institutions concerned.

Education and harmony

Education is the backbone of every civilized society. It is an indicator of progress and prosperity of the country. Education seeks to buildup the personality of the people by assisting his physical, intellectual, moral and emotional development.

Presently education rarely challenges prevailing paradigms and interests of national governments, wealthy elites, or dominant groups, whatever the economic or political system.

Education should have Humanitarian and Peace building agenda. This may help people to deal with the immediate and proximate riggers or violence and will allow us to respond to both the manifestation of violence and its causes. There is need to cultivate positive and mutually reinforcing linkages between the formal education system and the subcultures or islands of peace within society.

One of the most serious drawback of our education system today is dominated by the imperatives of the marketplace—an imperative that ignores any notion of social responsibility. The schools are preparing students to be individual, undifferentiated units, which are easily interchangeable in the global marketplace.

 

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