From Gandhi To Global Peace: How India Can Harness NEP 2020 To Mainstream Peace Studies In Curriculum And Promote World Harmony

As the world grapples with rising conflicts and violence, India has a unique opportunity to contribute to global peace by mainstreaming peace studies in its education system. Drawing on Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy of non-violence, this article argues that India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 can be a powerful tool to integrate peace education into the curriculum. By incorporating peace studies, India can cultivate a generation of empathetic, critically thinking, and globally conscious citizens who can promote world harmony. The article talks about leveraging NEP 2020 to give a strong boost to Peace studies as a discipline in Indian higher education and integrate Peace content in curriculum for a harmonious society. By harnessing NEP 2020 to mainstream peace studies, India can not only enhance its own social cohesion but cultivate global citizenship and also contribute to global peace and sustainable development.

Introduction

One of the significant features of the New Education Policy (NEP 2020) is to internationalise Indian education by opening up Indian higher education to global players. Now Indian universities can set up their campuses in other nations and foreign universities can open up their campuses in India too. Although setting up of campuses by reputed universities in India is though a welcome step however to actualise it and even before that realising its pros and cons on the ground is not seen by critics without many ifs and buts, what’s, why’s and how’s. Because a larger chunk including columnists, field experts, intellectuals and academics are concerned rather apprehensive about expanding privatization in the Indian context besides doubting the quality delivery by such big foreign institutions if they set up their campuses here in India. Also there lies a fundamental concern that is working in unison towards a common global curriculum that is globally relevant, inclusive, humane, gender sensitive and with peace education content besides being well integrated, all encompassing and fully synchronised with the local as well as global ethos. The main pressing concern at the moment is that of the curriculum development, keeping in view inclusivity, integrity, novelty, experiential learning aspect besides critical thinking which have been discussed and emphasised upon in the NEP 2020 as well. The question is who will do this curriculum development and are there enough academic bodies to do it, keeping in view the global standard and modern needs that can be meted out through education and injected into the younger generations. Therefore the prime consideration at this juncture should be the kind of curriculum development that makes Indian curriculum global in scope. 

Such an aspect primarily is the need of the hour as world is too peace deficit with a huge human cost especially now. Right from the Wuhan virus outbreak leading to pandemic Covid 19 as a global catastrophe to Ukraine and Russia conflict and Israel-Palestine war to many crises ridden African nations, hardly any region on the globe is peaceful and safe. Therefore peace education needs to be critically evaluated and integrated into primary as well as higher education as it is imperative to build harmony and manufacture peace. It is a fact that world at the moment needs just one thing that is peace content in curriculum to counter global terrorism and widespread uncertainty and insecurity. The aspect of peace education is very well synchronised with ideas of Indian education and therefore should be given a due space, by making peace education a connecting link to keep students connected internationally besides developing a solid peace based knowledge base back home. The question obviously is how to develop such a globally relevant peace content and later integrate it in the Indian curriculum that will be developed soon as per the policy directions.

Current Scenario

Curriculum development in the present context generally has been understood as making students globally competent, however the aim must not be making younger generation just globally competent but globally compatible and globally humane for peace building on the globe. The peace content, its efficacy and implementation therefore should be on the prime agenda of nations across the world with India taking lead. The fact remains that we cannot achieve desired results just by making students to compete blindly and consider rat race for acute meritocracy against each other as the sole objective and purpose of education.  Curriculum after all has to be for human beings and for society at large. The curriculum that does not infuse ‘the Humane’ element in any society can never be a complete curriculum. Like Vygotsky’s theory was an attempt to explain consciousness as the end product of socialisation, likewise it can be argued that manufacturing ‘the Humane ‘within the curriculum must be the prime focus of curriculum development and for that peace content has to be developed.

Peace Education in the Indian Context

As far as peace education in Indian context is concerned, it is not a new concept. However teaching values and morals has been emphasised upon but peace education needs more importance and space in the higher education curriculum. There is a considerable scholarly disinterest while we talk of integrating peace education as an essential aspect of the global curricular development that has to be given some serious attention. Though a global competition in education is good but creating a globally peace conscious society through a curriculum loaded with peace building content will be far better? Isn’t that more important than everything and defines the very core of interdisplinarity, multidisciplinary and universal educational standard. Doesn’t that make curriculum more responsible and inclusive and integrating? Therefore time has come to go for a global curriculum and think of a universal global curriculum to make citizens not just citizens but global citizens. Such a curriculum will boost both quality in the classroom and peace in the society with a global sense of consciousness and responsibility and more importantly peace consciousness. The pity is while working on curriculum and curriculum development the academic bodies, organisations or as state, we have been more working on integrating technologies, integrating robotics, artificial intelligence and more or less technological aspects into education and trying to integrate them and calling it curriculum development.

However while developing this technological acumen we have been neglecting, that there must be an important element to it which is peace acumen. Peace acumen unlike technological acumen is the integration of the content of harmony, global brotherhood, peacebuilding framework, dialogue and communication aspects and conflict resolution strategies. Along with the technological acumen whole world needs integration and synchronisation of peace acumen as well. The peace acumen will evolve from the contents of peace education, well merged in the global curriculum across the disciplines and different and diverse streams of knowledge, which will not just highlight the importance of peace, mutual harmony, brotherhood and love but also manufacture and construct a society that values peace, rather than violence, works for harmony rather than hate and bloodshed and respects human and social development rather than nuclear weapons and war mongering. Unless and until peace content doesn’t come in an integrated form in the curriculum and becomes a compulsory part of its development process, all curriculum development will be an unfinished and an incomplete project. Therefore, let it not be an optional content learning skill now but a compulsory and main skill to learn because the modern world and current younger generation doesn’t just need to work with peace or learn peace or learn the elements of peace but need to live with it and develop analytical and all the methodological and sustainable aspects of manufacturing peace on the ground. Therefore academicians, experts or the authorities concerned at higher level who have been thinking of curriculum development specially with the coming of NEP 2020, the peace element and peace content in curriculum definitely will be a step towards building India’s and Globe’s new innovation and peace economy.

Implementation of NEP2020 is the Key

Given the new policy, there is a clear emphasis on overhauling curriculum in Indian schools, reduction in syllabi, focus on experiential learning and critical thinking. If we have to achieve and create a classroom atmosphere for experiential learning and critical thinking, it calls for a drastic change in the current curriculum in use and such a huge responsility can’t be just done by school education departments, teachers or universities by nominating a few members for inputs but needs a global and serious engagement and experts from global organizations especially who work on the theme of education and have expertise on peace building both in the field and in theory. Since India’s NEP 2020 already emphasises skill development at lower level, let peace building be classified and defined as a skill so that youth work for peace and manufacture it for a global peaceful society. Lastly at the global level let major organisations working on comparative education, allied societies and in cooperation with different nation states take a lead role in proposing a curriculum of a global standard to cultivate global citizenship, conflict resolution and a peaceful coexistence.

Conclusion

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to reform the country’s education system. While NEP 2020 focuses on peace education indirectly and emphasizes its importance through various provisions like emphasis on values and ethics. NEP 2020 stresses the importance of inculcating values and ethics in students, which is a crucial aspect of peace education. It talks about global citizenship and mentions “global citizenship” as a key aspect of education, implying the need for students to understand and respect diverse perspectives, cultures, and nations. NEP 2020 stresses upon critical thinking and problem-solving as well. The policy encourages critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills, essential for conflict resolution and peace building. It talks about emotional intelligence and well-being of the students. The policy highlights the importance of empathy, and mental well-being, all of which are critical components of peace education. Moreover, inclusive and equitable education. NEP 2020 aims to promote inclusive and equitable education, addressing social and economic disparities that can contribute to conflict. Now what remains to be done by experts and policy makers is to interpret the policy’s inferences on peace education and prepare a clear framework for peace studies at least at the higher education level. So that a comprehensive framework for peace studies is made to benefit the Indian student community and sensitize the younger Indians about the importance of peace, harmony and co-existence. Given its scope and content, NEP 2020 can more effectively promote peace education and contribute to a more harmonious and peaceful society and inspire global society for peace and harmony through curriculum.