Enlightened Citizenship is a must
Two articles were published in the Bhopal edition of the Hindustan Times on the 26th and 28th January 2010 on active citizenship and communitarian development. Madhya Pradesh has embarked on a journey to make citizenship education a reality of our times. An exercise to find, to identify, to engage community-spirited people is on the anvil. We reproduce a letter to the editor published in the columns of the Hindustan Times this morning.
I read with great interest Kanul Shrivastava's articles in the open forum on the 26th and 28th January. It is a good idea to make citizenship education a reality of our times. I also fully agree that not only a responsive government, but also a responsive community should be the ideal of a more humane culture. In these turbulent times, a meaningful exercise to find, to identify and to engage community-spirited people for the welfare of the society is more than welcome.
The concept of political citizenship has been used since the days of the Greeks and Romans and is primarily a Western idea. A political citizen is concerned about rights and individual freedom of action. Enlightened citizenship on the other hand has its roots in the Indian spiritual tradition. An enlightened citizen is concerned about the welfare of the collective (abhyudaya) and at the same time, ensuring that each individual achieves life fulfillment (nihsresyaya). Enlightened citizenship includes within it political citizenship, and in addition is concerned about the inner and outer life of the human being who contributes to society.
A just and progressive social order derives from enlightened citizenship. Swami Ranganathananda while dwelling on this subject said that if there is only ordinary adult citizenship, but not enlightened citizenship, there will never emerge a just social order; there will never be a calm, steady, and onward march directed to the achievements of national goals but only wobbly movements, accompanied by noisy talk of national goals.
Being closely associated with a citizenship project in my workplace, I am deeply committed to the ideal of citizenship and would love to make a humble, voluntary and apolitical contribution to this valuable initiative of Madhya Pradesh Government. I offer my services for the same through these esteemed columns.
I also salute the Enlightened Citizen deeply embedded in the hearts of all of us!
JAGAT SINGH BISHT, INDORE
coolbisht@hotmail.com
courtesy: hindustan times, january 30, 2010
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Dear Jagat Singh Bisht,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to congratulate you for the beautiful article “ Enlightened citizenship is a must “ that you wrote for HT recently. Sir, I wanted to bring to your notice that we bring out a monthly magazine called Blogger's park, which covers all the societal aspects. You can visit our site www.scratchmysoul.com and also write your blogs at Bloggers park section. It would be really nice to more fruitful relationship with you in future For any queries please feel free to contact at 0755-6461175 or write to us at info@scratchmysoul.com.
Regards
Ashfaq Ahmad
Scratchmysoul.com
Thank you very much, Mr Ashfaq Ahmad.
ReplyDeleteI have gone through scratchmysoul.com and found a lot of value in it. It is also nice to know that you bring out Blogger's Park magazine. I appreciate your dedication to this worthy cause.
I would certainly like to be associated with you as we are working towards the same goal. State Bank of India is undergoing a silent Citizen Revolution and I am fortunate to be an Intervention Leader. We are instilling the values of making positive contribution in all spheres of life (home, workplace and society) and have already covered more than 1,82,000 employees under Project Citizen-SBI. We mould them to be enlightened citizens and look beyond narrow self-interest and routine duty. It is one of the biggest self-discovery and transformation exercises ever.
I am also running a blog CitizenSBI which is a live chronicle of the citizenship movement in the SBI. I invite you to visit it and would be keen to have your feedback.
I am attaching two brief write-ups - one on the Citizent Movement in SBI and the other on the CitizenSBI blog - which may be put-up on scratchmysoul.com, if found appropriate. I feel it is one of the greatest human interest stories in these turbulent times. You may also use any material from your blog that you find meaningful. It is indeed encouraging to find a fellow traveller in the journey of citizenship.
Warm regards,
Jagat Singh Bisht
AGM(Training) and Intervention Leader Citizen-SBI,
State Bank Learning Centre,
13, Manik Bagh Road, Indore.
citizensbi.blogspot.com
Cell No. 9425913710, Landline 0731-4205916