Reflections

Colloquium on Emerging Challenges and Scope for Peace

January 12 -13 , 2024

Elements of reflection on the contemporary world

Louis Campana

Will you be surprised if I tell you that we are currently experiencing a third world war? This is a geopolitical, geostrategic and economic war. I won't talk about Ukraine or Gaza...what's the point? The spirals of violence are on the way!

Nation-States have invested all functions of power, most of the time in direct dictatorial form or by circumventing democratic principles. Democracy is a worn word and a lie by the games of parties where, without a sufficient majority, unnatural adjustments take place and prevent any real democratic expression. Thus, in this context, the aggressiveness of these Nation States is increased tenfold as if to deceive in the face of an impossibility of resolving insoluble internal problems and where free expression is subject to censorship. So much so that we have heard in France that censorship is a protection of freedom of expression by prohibiting what is considered fake news!

The power of the British Empire over India made Gandhi say in 1932:

“Real freedom will come not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity of all to resist authority when abused; in other words, freedom is to be attained by educating the people to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority.”

“The State represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a soul, but as the State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence. Hence, I prefer the doctrine of trusteeship.”

[Gandhi, Democracy: Real and Deceptive, Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House]

On the other hand, the very structure of society has been turned upside down in less than two generations by what is commonly called "economic development": The violence of States on their citizens to satisfy a good place on the international scene has become essential and priority is manifested by the progressive destruction of the basic structures of society. centuries-old workshops have given way to competitive industries, small family farms to agro-industry and over-exploitation of animals. Thus, knowledge and transmissions of knowledge inherited from past centuries were lost and have already disappeared. We have therefore cut the branch on which the entire society was sitting and we will see what the consequences will be with its three texts to come...

To begin with, here is the voice of a first people, the Guaranis.

I would like to bring here the reflections of Adolfo Peres Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize 1980) on the subject of development. So, he spoke to me about the indigenous people of South America, the Guaranis, to whom he asked how they understood development.

They gave him an object lesson.

Interview:

“For us, the word development does not exist!”

“So, what word to understand each other?”

he continues

“With us there is the word “BALANCE”, balance with the Cosmos, with the environment, with Mother Earth, balance with others, with oneself, with God. And it is this balance which is Life. "

“And when this balance is broken, then violence and its consequences begin.”

Balance with the cosmos and the environment

In all the great traditions, women and men are all dependent on the cosmos and their environment, sun, moon, stars. An obvious fact that our contemporaries forget. Passive fatalities, such as a volcanic eruption or a whim of the sun which modifies the climate, a meteor which transforms the logic of life, all these things which we cannot change, have been and still are objects of acceptance or sacralization. In any case, nothing to do with the active fatalities which are human works: while knowing the danger resulting from nuclear weapons as from civilian nuclear power, plant diseases due to agribusiness, monocultures, the dispersion on crops pesticides or chemical weed killers, etc... this evidence does not portend an awareness of the pseudo-scientists in the pay of multinationals, of the king of money, of the policies subject to lobbying by the latter. This imbalance is found in the bodies of humans and animals who try to adapt to abuse and are subject to the business of large chemistry and pharmacopoeia laboratories. These are the immediate consequences of disrespect for the cosmos and the environment.

Balance with Mother Earth

Here again, ancient peoples never called themselves owners of the land and cultivated it with respect and asked permission to do so, simply aware that their lives depended on its balance. The same goes for the management of animal life.

Balance with others

“Hell is other people” said Jean-Paul Sartre. Yes, the other is by definition the other side of the ego. He is the disruptor of my instincts of domination, profit, precedence. Reserving for him the same rights as those I have cannot stand me, and all the work of balance consists of recognizing in the other a status equal to mine, to the point of being able to say that without it, I am not. This is a radical transformation, without denying myself… “You are, therefore I am” by Satish Kumar should be able to illuminate this balance.

Balance with yourself

Let's be clear: living, with an awareness of being, is reserved for those who work at it every day. Fleeing is characteristic of man when facing himself. So, we work, we get agitated, we compare ourselves, we exploit, we are jealous, we have fun, we dissect, all this so as not to have to confront the deep self, the deep inside which is frightening in its simplicity and requires a meditative and serene presence. Gandhi, in his autobiography, constantly referred to this little inner voice. the ultimate reason for life lies in this resonance! Without this, humans miss out on their life and die like a mistake.

Lanza del Vasto summarizes this balance with oneself in this analysis taken from his preface to Gandhi's book “HindSwaraj”.

Absolute coherence of thought and action is based on three pillars: “Control yourself, control your impulses and mainly your “will power”.

“Know yourself, seek, access to “your” truth, which results in the coherence of your “Being” and your “Doing”.

“Love others as yourself”.

Balance with God

All of the above is in vain if there is no reference to the Source, whatever its name.

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”(John, 4.9.)

Living Water, like the little inner voice, is always there, deep within each person, but we are practically deaf or absent, too busy managing nothing...and we remain thirsty!

Where does this Question come from? Is our Western civilization, which seems to want to impose itself everywhere, in balance?

Isn’t it permanent violence? Structural violence, violence of domination, control, threat and profit? Is she anything other than what is called sin in all religious traditions?

Second text: “the Temptations of Christ in the desert”

Still with this same idea, I allow myself to travel to the 18th century and quote this Russian philosopher Vladimir Soloviev, who questions the temptations of Christ in the desert in the Gospels.

Everyone knows these three temptations, but for those who do not know them, here is the text:

“Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he became hungry. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves.” Jesus answered, “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The devil then took him to the holy city, placed him on top of the temple and said to him: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down! For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will carry you in their hands, lest your foot strike a stone.” Jesus said to him, “It is also written, thou shalt not provoke the Lord, thy God.”

The devil took him again to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said to him: “All these I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus then said to him, “Get away, Satan! For it is written: The Lord your God you shall worship, and Him only you shall serve.” So, the devil left him. And behold, angels came to Jesus and ministered to him.

(The stone transformed into bread,

The angels preventing the fall from the top of the temple,

The kingdoms of the world available, all if Jesus bows down to him, Satan.)

They are summarized in the text in three verbs in the infinitive:

“If you want to “have everything,” “be everything,” and “power everything,” bow down before me,” Satan says clearly.

Consequence of "having it all", greed, the hoarding of goods and the misery that results from it both for the thirsty for greed and for its direct and indirect victims.

Consequence of "being everything", the immediate and fleeting stardom which locks you in a dungeon of illusions about yourself. The futility of this attitude is disconcerting. Fortunately, they all die and reach their limits.

Consequence of “power everything”, dictatorships, misunderstandings, abuses and revolutions… the wars and suffering that result from them…

And Jesus sends him...to the devil!

Greek tragedy speaks of “Hubris” to describe this excess, this thirst for power.

And what are the remedies for the excesses specific to all potentates?

Third text: the Gita.

This is a comment by Vinoba Bhave, a successor of Gandhi, reported by Satish Kumar, in his book “You are, therefore I am”. (I take this opportunity to say that Descartes' famous "I think therefore I am" is an aberration which produces the modern world where the mere fact of thinking would justify being one's own source and therefore the right to do what one we want).

In the chapter "Earth, soul and society", Kumar, quoting Vinoba, distinguishes three elements:

Yajna (ritual sacrifice, self-sacrifice), Dâna (duty of charity, recognition of others) and Tapas (austerity, sobriety).

Yajna consists of repairing the harm that Man has caused to the Earth by returning all or part of what He has taken from it, an act often symbolic but cultural. The farmer, for example, returns compost and nutrients to Mother Earth. The carpenter will plant trees. Elements therefore of return and respect after having taken something.

Dâna consists of being aware of the fact that at our birth everyone is nourished and raised by human society and that it is a question of giving something back by honouring and respecting our elders because they transmitted art to us, culture, the experience of life.

Finally, we must nourish our self through practices such as meditation, study, fasting, rest, sleep and contact with nature, this is Tapas.

This is what we can find in the Scriptures or among ancient peoples, available to men, Scriptures that bear witness to the reflections of the living on their past experiences, inherited and always updated... There are many others...

Are these things currently taught in our education systems? Above all, we teach how to take, use, consume and demand rights!

State violence and resistance.

The legitimized violence of established States is the major problem of our current societies and the constitution of international institutions (UN and derivatives, IPCC, Cop) without any democratic or elective process further increases questions about decisions, from which people are definitively excluded…

Any direct nonviolent action to counteract these states of affairs becomes impossible or insignificant because:

The adversary cannot be found, he is impersonal, the power being in the hands of civil servants who are prisoners of their jobs and without any authority. Voluntary servitude for wages (see Étienne de la Boétie).

The real instigators are the billionaires, so-called philanthropists, who recover with the left hand what they give the right hand, all orchestrated by the global banks, IMF and ECB which feed the multinationals. The latter, under the guise of creating jobs after having destroyed them, offer positions without creativity, have no concern for the future of humanity, only immediate profit counts. Let us say clearly that the real problems of COP28, 29 and following cannot be resolved by ultra-liberalism since it is their source.

The media, whose role is to enlighten citizens, are muzzled by their owners, who are both judges and parties, since they are arms dealers, politically invested or billionaires or even owners of multinationals. They are the true creators of a ready-made thought; I mean of an official propaganda.

Religious authorities keep a low profile, at least at the top, but we can hope for the renewal of dispersed peoples.

What are the pillars of this authoritarian society?

Banks, normally at the service of particular initiatives, but confiscated and dominated by state banks or international institutions such as the IMF, BCE.

The stock exchanges, where speculation and gambling reign supreme for the sole benefit of the powerful, as legal corruption.

The tax on labour and trade to finance politicians and civil servants who maintain general oppression in place (this was already the criticism of Étienne de Boétie in the 16th century), handsomely paid instruments of oppression. Note that big fortunes everywhere are exempt from taxes or have financial services and armies of lawyers to limit it. It is therefore the others who pay the tax.

The multiplication of non-elected International Institutions whose decisions are planetary and not subject to the people, supranational.

Addiction to speed, to progress and therefore permanent dizziness, no one can honestly and in real time follow the processes of loss of freedoms and abuse of power. Addiction to speed and progress are responsible for the waste of fossil fuels and the consequences on clean air, the use of plastic which clutters the oceans and the production of useless and bulky consumer goods. Lanza del Vasto, in “Principles and precepts of the return to evidence” affirms that “speed is a form of nothing”.

Business and IT schools and their thousands of little sharks scattered all over the world with their little salesman's suitcases who, more than with weapons, have subjugated people with the illusion of development... of the cheap and essential product (but which we can do without), and above all the slavery of the small screen, including among children...the current small suitcases are called Google, Facebook, Meta, Youtube, etc.

Finally, the will not to see, the apathy or the acceptance of the vanquished of the system, of the billions, it seems, from the right, from the left, from the deep centre and from the depths of the extinct soul...with “Wokism” as a cultural hurricane and groundswell.

While waiting for the chaos to come, because it comes inexorably, let's be positive...

What are the means to hope for the renewal of dispersed peoples?

- through non-cooperation, civil disobedience (undeclared, but practiced),

- the spirit of sobriety that no power can prohibit,

- the multiplication of networks for the exchange of everyday consumer goods at the village or neighbourhood level, artistic creativity,

- education in kindness and attention to others.

- unconditional love for others, a guarantee of truth and a beautiful life.

- and finally, the personal transformation and the contagion that it can generate.

Finally, I would like to quote Lanza del Vasto, who during these conferences said that Gandhi, if he had been asked to create a new constitution for India, would have declared that he would choose the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 as his constitution.

So here is what the Gandhian Beatitudes would be, according to what I know of Gandhi:

Work your interior garden consistently.

Free yourself from all violence and break the law if necessary.

Sowing the seeds of a sharing economy.

Give up trying to be right but understand the other's position.

Give free rein to the imagination and its intoxication by surpassing the puzzle of reality.

Welcome the poor and the migrant with conviction because it is an opportunity for you and them.

Respect Life and the Cosmos because your own life depends on this balance.

( The original text was written in French . English Translation: Shambhavi Sharma )

Louis Campana is Président, Gandhi International , 37 rue de la Concorde ,11000 Carcassonne , France www.gandhiinternational.org www.association-shanti.org

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The Artificial Intelligence

Vijay Tambe

In July 2022, Blake Lemoine, an engineer, was first placed on forced leave and later fired by Google for violating a nondisclosure agreement. He was working in the Artificial Intelligence (hereafter we'll just call AI) department. He published various conversations with Google's large language model 'LaMDA'. Even though ‘LaMDA’ is AI ; he declared that it is sensitive.

On 2nd May 2023, Geoffrey Hinton, the 'father of AI' and Turing Prize winner, resigned from Google at the age of 76. While resigning, he said, ‘AI is more dangerous than the threat of climate change’. According to him, AI will be more intelligent than humans and will take over this planet.He expressed the fear of AI being used to gain power by dividing the people., People will lose their jobs before all this happens. He lamented that he has no solution to what was about to happen.

On 16th May, 2023, Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, insisted in front of the Senate-level investigation committee of the US government that through the cooperation of all at the international level, AI Licensing and auditing should be done. Since 2018 in America, efforts are underway to legislate to control and regulate AI. But recently renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari gave a different reaction on AI. He said that the first unicellular organism was formed at the beginning of life. Like today's AI is. ‘It's just a baby!’ In a way, he has given a warning of danger.

Chat GPT 3 followed by Chat GPT 4 blew everyone away. Chat GPT 3 and 4 are for language. It contains the language, its structure, its rules, all the books till date, all the information of the world till 2021. Simply put, from its work experience, it knows exactly which word will come next. So it makes mistakes. Of course, there is a process of progressing through these mistakes. Some people feel that Chat GPT is too basic in terms of AI. Lets consider in 2022, Blake Lemoine may have misspoken or misunderstood. Is Joffrey Hinton wrong? AI has been built on Hinton's research on Neural Networks.

Overall the case is serious as Hinton warns. CEO of Open AI emphasis on controls. In May 2023, the world-renowned AI Experts decided to stop research on AI for at least six months. Basically, it is the creators, the parents of AI, saying ‘Demon’ is born in our womb, and it must be stoped. Otherwise it will cause great harm. These manufacturing companies had not started serving humanity by investing billions of dollars. Now that the child's feet are seen in the rearing, they are talking of the law, control, regulation and morality.

We Indian people think that technology should always be imported for us. Again globalization has given a booster to this mentality. It can only be argued whether AI has already came or it is coming, and till the end of the dispute it will be known that AI have started working in MIDC in Marathwada, . Anyway, let me state at the outset that I am not anti-technology. Technology advances with time. It increases the speed of production. Neat and good quality goods are produced in very short time and in large quantities. As technology becomes more and more advanced, manpower is required for production. Yet all the production processes have been controlled by humans so far. Now AI and machine learning will eliminate the need for human control. By giving proper instructions to the machines AI will get things done. It will take care of them. In short, human intervention in production will be at a minimum. After that it will almost disappear. According to many, it has already started and it will not take long to spread. Mechanization has started in agriculture in India and AI in agriculture will take time to reach. This will depend on many factors in the agricultural sector. I will not present my technical position here. Because that is not the subject of the article. I'm going to present what I think the future holds based on what I've read, heard, or talked to some experts about AI. I will certainly be happy if what I wrote turns out to be false.

Let's start with Chat GPT 4. It's likeask any question, ask anything, and answer ready in ten seconds,whatever the answer to the question. Be it an essay. Be it presentation. Be it about science. Ask anything about planets, stars, soil, water, stones, poetry, literature, sociology. It has the answer. Chat GPT is from Open AI Company. Chat GPT 4 is much more powerful than Chat GPT 3. Chat GPT 5 is coming soon. It will have sound and images along with language. Earlier only information was available on Google. Then we had to collect the required information and write it as we want. Chat GPT cancels your hard work. In a way, he challenged Google's business. Open AI has tried to pull the plank out from under their feet. Later, Microsoft introduced a chat bot called Bing. A presentation made by Sundar Pichai, the head of Google with his team, is available on YouTube. His AI named Bard is coming and it has many AI apps. Due to this, there will be great changes and it will be of great convenience to the users. Also gradually everyone will market programs with similar features and its use will become universal. But, important to consider its consequences.

Human nature:

As I do not know about the causality of natural phenomena, the experience of those phenomena arouses curiosity in me. I try to find something. It disturbs the brain. Creates something. It creates new doubts. Then I gather information about it. Read, act, watch documentaries, talk to experts. Analyzes the information received. If there is any doubt, we collect more information and gain clarity. In human life, this process is continuous on a small and large scale. Through this process we gain knowledge. Now, at the very first moment of curiosity, we take help of Chat GPT4 and ask for the reason for the phenomenon that we see, feel and get the job done. All the information on that subject will be presented in the way you want.

Doubts arise in our minds. Then we try to look at that doubt or that question from many angles. Our effort continues until that question is solved. Therefore, our analytical ability to look at a question from many angles increases. But why do you want all this? Why bother the brain? You just need to be able to ask the question properly. That is enough. The GPT will take care of rest of the chat. Even funnier, Chat GPT can give a single answer in multiple styles. So if a question is asked in the class, all the children will find the answer on Chat GPT. However, it will not be a traditional type of copy. Again all answers will be correct. In short, you don't need an analytical mind. There is no need to stress the head by creating questions. Why learn more languages? It is enough to ask questions. Despite this, if we use Chat GPT, we will get good marks in school, college, medical, engineering etc. Let's leave this good mark etc. But what will I be, a living creature accustomed with thinking ability, when that habit is gone? This is the real question. Today we find some answers while thinking, while bothering our head, new small knowledge creates excitement. There is so much pure joy. It is a pleasure to learn new aspects of a question. This is what inspires us to face new questions. Because no one else can provide that excitement or that sheer joy. I am not writing this about any scientist. This happens in all of your lives from childhood. So will all this be history? No. But it will come to very few people. This excitement will not be pure joy universal. So how will the man of the future be? What will his cultural tastes be like? Will he be able to communicate easily in society? These questions will have to be answered soon.

Language and creativity:

In this whole process of Chat GPT, one should check the possibility that the person will enjoy the language, learn different language skills, acquire different styles. When there is no need to ask questions, to think about it, to use the analytical mind, where will a person need a language? Will it be enough to learn language just for asking questions on chat GPT? As a man's urge to create dwindles, will he take interest in reading the various genres of literature he comes across? These questions do not seem unreasonable. It may be countered that those who wish to think should not use Chat GPT. There are two answers to this. Either man is always looking for the easy way out. There is no alternative without Chat GPT to speed up many tasks. And secondly, if not used, you will not survive the competition. The use of calculators have been forgotten tables which have learnt. It is not unreasonable to fear that the same will happen with the use of language.

Shakespeare wrote plays three and a half hundred years ago. They still happen in theaters. Always housefull. They have been translated into almost all languages of the world. We know all this. What was called creativity in Shakespeare's time? Two hundred years ago, a hundred years ago, even forty years ago, what was called creativity and today after AI came, it is time to once again define what exactly is creativity. For example I prepared the plot of a play. The play will be written in Shakespearean style. The same play will be written in the style of Shirwadkar. Can that style be creativity? What exactly is creativity? In terms of creativity AI, it means untapped good potential. The sentence is easy to read but it deserves serious thought. Once a different experiment is done, its activity is over. AI will swallow your experiment as a possibility. AI will update itself and give a belch of satisfaction. That means it will be upgraded. It means that the level of creativity in human life has to be kept very high. Because once an experiment is done, that possibility is over. It will be counted as data. In order to preserve one's own uniqueness from AI ,a man has to keep doing experiments which have not been done till now. It has to be considered constantly. It is very difficult. As with visual art, questions arise about creativity arising from the use of words. Visual art has its own language. It is not about words. It is called visual language or picture language. Henceforth If one wants to create pictures with the help of AI, the painter has to put into words what kind of picture one wants, be it realistic or abstract. That is, the painter has to rely on words to express himself without thinking through pictorial language. According to the progress made till date the media changed but the language remained the same but now pictorial language is not useful for AI. Pictorial language has to be expressed through old media.

Movies:

Don't be surprised if the youthful Deepti Naval appears in a movie tomorrow with Rajkumar Rao as the heroine. The only question is how many years will it take. So now, to bring a young Deepti Naval in the cinema, what technical procedures will have to be done and the main thing is to decide the cost of the work. An experiment was seen in an interview. The interviewer took pictures of a very elderly uncle with his mobile phone while he was talking to him. A baseball match was playing on the screen behind. The interviewer asked the uncle 'Who do you want to replace? Uncle just smiled. The interviewee mailed the photos taken in the mobile phone. In the screen game, an image of an uncle is affixed to a player. The original player disappears and the uncle appears playing baseball. This was a very small scale experiment. Old favorite young actresses and young heros will be back in new movies fifty years later only if they like it and the process should be affordable. There will be such fun gatherings. There are many dangers in this. In the meantime, the video of former US President Trump being caught by the police was circulating on social media. That video was prepared with the help of AI. Once you have a recording of your voice, it can be used to record what you don't speak in your own voice and credit it to your name. Even if we make rules about how one should use technology, we are experiencing that misuse does not stop or its use is determined. Tomorrow means elections in India in 2024. If a video of any political leader pelting stones or shouting Pakistan Zindabad is broadcasted, what terrible situation will arise? Anything from inciting riots to influencing polls can be done. Then there will be a police case. But on whom? On the fake video maker or innocent political leader? In order to create love, harmony and brotherhood among the people, one has to speak the truth. Moral appeals have to be made and love is not created by lying about love. A subversive attitude will spread fear and terror in society by using falsehood to make it appear so real that the consequences will be dire. In short, technology has blurred the line between true and false. ‘Stick (Kolit)’ has been received in the hands of monkeys.

Competition:

Chat GPT 4 is currently being discussed in India. It is very expensive to build AI. It involves many people, huge investment. The company wants to get the expected return from it. Now this company has a competitor company. Similarly, there is a third, fourth, fifth competing company. When they will develop AI, that AI is most advanced than older one. The code to be written is to defeat the opponent. It seems natural to have to make it more advanced, effective and powerful. In such a fierce competition, it will be natural to lose the hand of ethics and all conscience. It's time for everyone to think about what the outcome will be. AI has been considered as an artificial but thinking organization. AI who is in infancy today, when will the monster take form? When it will cross the human? When will AI authority reign over man? These questions have been raised. The evolution of any living being, including humans, happens at a certain speed. It has its own pace. The main thing is that no one is competing with anyone in this evolution. That animal has its own speed but AI not such. If one AI advances, other AI connected to it through the Internet will progress. Apart from that they keep upgrading themselves. Their speed is not as fixed as a human's. Many experts’ opinion that they will develop exponentially. Once they are out of human control, it is difficult to predict how they will behave next. Funny thing is that, AI has strength, intellect, technology, they will act as they wants. But it is not responsible for anything. Human beings have lavished rights on those who have no responsibility. No matter how much the competing companies talk about welfare, no one has given a clear opinion on how many people will be unemployed.

Employment:

A friend of mine is an executive in a small advertising company. He had to go to make a presentation to his client. His junior was responsible for making this presentation. Junior was ill. A friend provided the information to Chat GPT4 and received a ready-made presentation within a minute. They got different options. With a few tweaks, he created a presentation in ten minutes. The client was happy to see that. Asked to create advertisements. Then there was a load of work in the art department. A friend downloaded a software which was based on AI. My friend created the ads using it. They are available in several options. He chose the best option and presented it to the client. Client was also pleased.

Nowadays everyone is upskilling. There are a lot of ads coming to learn AI on social media. This upskilled man with AI When working with him, he will take away the chairs of all his companions. That means the jobs of those working with him will go. So one prediction is that upskilling will explode in the next few years.

Then the client will think why give my advertising work to an advertising agency? Rather than he will buy different software based on AI and advertise like minded. This stage is not far away. The question is how many years can a man continue upskilling? Is it possible for humans to compete with the ever evolving AI? A person will struggle to survive but will have to manage the immense stress, insecurity and suffering that this creates. Currently, there are roughly two ways. One of the psychiatrists and the other one of the following fake Saint!

Utility:

Advances in the field of technology are always useful to someone. Otherwise that technology cannot be developed or sold. Basically technology does not have its own thinking, ethics, values and we have given the weapon of intelligence to such a thing.

It is predicted that the next fifty years will lead to revolutionary changes in diagnosis and treatment in the field of medicine, which will lead to the discovery that the human life span will increase from 150 to 200 years. Let's leave aside the matter of life expectancy. Even now, it appears that there will be changes in diagnosis and treatment. But for that you have to invest a lot. Then came the return on investment. After globalization, the government has gradually started withdrawing from public responsibilities like education and health. You may have noticed that with the proliferation of mediclaims came the so-called hospital industry conglomerate.

Today in a country like India the bottom 60% of the population can only support themselves and do nothing else. However, considerable wealth is created through their labor. These people will get benefits arising from AI?

The same is the case with education. Extreme inequality is reflected in the education sector as well. There are state-of-the-art schools from kindergartens. Their fees are in lakhs of rupees and on the other hand many schools do not have simple toilets, children do not have clean water to drink. Education was a distant thing. At the government level, the higher education system should change along with the changing technology. Skills should be developed. Where investments should be made to teach advanced technology, we are trying to get nectar from cow urine. Gynecologists are being trained in obstetrics and universities are starting courses on astronomy. This begs the question of how well-educated young people will engage with the changing technology.

Solution UBI :

The answer to the question of how much unemployment will increase has been given by Klaus Schwab, a major proponent of the fourth industrial revolution and the president of the World Economic Forum. He has written in the book 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' in 2016 that the work in which there is renewal, those works will end. According to their estimates, 52% to 59% of jobs will be lost. 35% of jobs will completely change the nature of work and 6% will create new jobs. Estimates released by Niti Aayog of India in 2018 are similar to the above estimates. Today in 2023, the heads of the world's leading IT companies are seen expressing concern about unemployment. Their predictions of job cuts should scare us. There is no clear statements from official companies or AI experts. Because no one can predict how and how fast this technology will change. We can all agree that effortfully dying is not the solution to unemployment. But how to feed these unemployed? According to some people, a special tax should be levied on AI companies and the proceeds should be used for the welfare of the unemployed. From the end of the twentieth century, as increase in automation and AI, the concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) became popular globally. That means if you are not employed you will continue to get a fixed amount. This is a rough idea. We should look at the society from which this idea is formed. That is to say, whether the nature of the idea is universal or of particular apportionment. Before the emergence of AI, in the society, there was plenty of prosperity, no inflation, low population, negative rate of population growth, employment for most and allowance for some unemployed to live a good standard of living.

In this society, unemployment due to automation and AI, the idea of giving UBI came. It suggested that when man's concern for livelihood is over, he will indulge in poetry, music, literature, sculpture, painting and he will innovate. He will be upskilled by learning new technologies with renewed vigor. The experiment was conducted for a short period of time in certain sections. Implemented some of its pilot projects for study. From various studies, many thinkers suggest that this arrangement is correct from the statistics, and the laziness that arises from it has also been discussed.

A country like India has a large population. The population is young. The country is underdeveloped. The disparity is extreme. Before the emergence of AI, 28% of the country's population does not earn more than forty rupees a day, they fall directly below the poverty line. The total population of the country is around 140 crores and the government distributes free food grains to nearly 80 crore people because they are below or near the poverty line. We can say that more than 50% of the people in the country are poor because they cannot buy food grains at the market price. The government is not stopping this scheme which was started after the corona period. Various types of subsidies like this are given by the government. Once these poor people and the unemployment caused by AI, the above means 80 crore plus unemployed, the figure will reach 85, can the government afford to give UBI to all of them? Given this first question and suppose, will the existing subsidies continue or be discontinued? This is the second question. In 2016-17, the Economic Survey of India suggested that we should provide UBI instead of social welfare schemes. So I myself doubt that the government can afford to provide both subsidies and UBI. Suppose if the subsidy is stopped, the market price will increase. As gas cylinders are increasing. Also, money will come into the market through direct UBI allocation and it will also increase prices. So what will be the value of the money in hand? Mainly, since employment is not my right as a citizen, I will have to pick up whatever piece of bread the government throws in the name of UBI.

Who will benefit and who will suffer from the consequences AI? It is necessary to have a clear discussion on this. Finally, the discussion of what is the merit of human life comes to a halt here. Earn money by working hard and live with self respect. My self-esteem proves my humanity. Even the poorest of the poor take this role. People have not wealth but have self respect, the balance is maintained only if the self respect of various elements in the society is maintained. Today we are standing in such a place that in a few years from now there is a possibility that we will have to take money without any effort. How much self-esteem and vulnerability would it involve? My society does not need my hard work and wisdom. My existence has no value here. They are giving me UBI to live until I die. I will always have this nagging feeling. Can I play the flute wholeheartedly in such a situation?

The original text was written in Marathi

Vijay Tambe is Secretary , Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan, Sevagram Wardha, Maharashtra Email:vtambe@gmail.com

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3 Temporary Monopolies’ in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Power Asymmetries, and the Need for Collective Governance

Dr. Rajesh Many

Abstract

This study examines documented cases of problematic AI use during the 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict through the theoretical framework of Joseph Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction. A contextual content analysis is conducted on 5 incidents involving AI systems deployed unethically or irresponsibly by state and non-state actors. Inductive coding identifies themes aligned with Schumpeterian concepts including temporary monopolies, unchecked capitalist motivations, and destabilizing impacts of unregulated technological innovation. Analysis reveals asymmetries of power and influence conferred by exclusive AI access, tendencies to weaponize AI for political and financial motives with impunity, and risks of social disparities being creatively destroyed by uncontrolled automation. The study substantiates Schumpeter's prescient theoretical insights about potentials for danger and harm from capitalism's relentless technology innovation cycles lacking wisdom or ethical foundations.Findings highlight urgent needs for governance frameworks that re-centre human rights, democratize access, implement safeguards against misuse, and align innovation incentives with social responsibility. The research contributes a novel application of Schumpeterian theory to illuminate risks of artificial intelligence in socially impactful contexts. It underscores calls for collective action to consciously shape AI progress towards equitable ends.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Creative Destruction, Innovation Governance, Technology Ethics, Algorithmic Bias, Asymmetric Conflicts, Capitalism

Introduction

In recent international media coverage, it's evident that the recent conflicts between Israel and Palestinian Hamas mark a notable shift towards the integration of Artificial Intelligence in warfare. Generative AI models are being employed to manipulate public opinion and emotions, serving as a tool to justify actions through the creation of AI-generated content, including photos, discourses, and deepfake videos. This highlights the increasing use of AI capabilities not only in military engagements but also in propaganda campaigns and geopolitical negotiations.

Several incidents during the recent clashes have exposed the deployment of AI technologies in ways that raise ethical concerns. Israel, for instance, utilized an AI-powered system for lethal targeting in Gaza, showcasing the incorporation of advanced technologies in military operations. Additionally, instances of deepfakes and AI-generated disinformation have proliferated online, contributing to the manipulation of public discourse surrounding the conflict.

The emerging trend of AI being utilized in such conflicts emphasizes the need for careful scrutiny and ethical considerations in the use of these technologies, both by state and non-state actors. The blurred lines between information, manipulation, and warfare underscore the complex challenges posed by the growing intersection of AI and global conflicts.

These events highlight increasing global apprehensions regarding the dual-sided risks associated with AI innovation. While these technologies have the potential to foster social progress, they can also be weaponized to inflict substantial harm on humanity. Despite being in its initial phase, there is a palpable concern about the potential consequences as the technology advances further. However, there exists a dearth of research examining the systemic factors and incentives that contribute to the misuse of emerging technologies. Furthermore, there is a need for the development of a policy framework to ensure the ethical application of AI for the betterment of humanity.

In response to this gap in knowledge, this study aims to investigate the weaponization of AI-based deceptive strategies during the Israel-Hamas conflict. This analysis will be conducted through the theoretical lens of Joseph Schumpeter's seminal concept of "creative destruction" within capitalist innovation cycles, providing a framework to understand the dynamics and implications of AI deployment in conflicts.

Analytical Framework

Schumpeter (1942) argued that capitalism inherently progresses through a continuous cycle of creative destruction. New innovations disruptively destroy old technologies, processes, and power structures, only to be creatively destroyed themselves by the next wave of innovation. While fostering economic dynamism, Schumpeter contended that this churn of creative destruction also reproduces inequality and allows temporary monopolies. Profit-seekers apply innovations in damaging ways before regulations catch up, and ethical concerns arise. Applying this perspective can shed critical light on how the asymmetric power structures and profit motivations in conflicts incentivize the weaponization of disruptive innovations like AI before ethical governance frameworks can keep pace.

Building upon this theory and incorporating neoclassical assumptions, technology is viewed as an exogenous factor for developing or peripheral countries in the world system. It originates from the capitalist system through the creative destruction process. Furthermore, innovation theories delineate two primary pathways for the emergence of innovation – demand pull and supply push factors.Demand pull innovation involves incremental improvements, adding value to existing technology in response to market demand and consumer behaviour. On the other hand, supply push innovation is characterized by disruptive changes that can create significant shifts in existing technological landscapes, further restructuring the social and economic systems of a country.

The application of Schumpeter's theory and these neoclassical assumptions provides a foundation for understanding how technology, particularly in the form of innovation, impacts developing countries. This perspective underscores the transformative power of technology, where it is introduced and evolves through the dynamics of creative destruction.In essence, my analytical approach aims to draw upon Schumpeterian insights to investigate the role of innovation, particularly in its supply-push manifestations, in shaping the technological landscape of developing and peripheral countries within global systems. It substantiates warnings about the potential dangers of unchecked tech innovation and highlights the need for responsible governance to constructively guide AI’s evolution, especially in developing countries like India, within the perspective mentioned in Schumpeter’s theoretical insights. In doing so, it contributes to one of the first critical applications of Schumpeterian theory to examine contemporary risks from artificial intelligence systems.

Methodology

This study employs a contextual content analysis approach to examine documented incidents of AI use during the recent Israel-Hamas conflict. Content analysis allows for the systematic analysis of textual data to make inferences about meanings, themes, and intents. A contextual approach is adopted to go beyond surface-level word counts and frequencies to instead focus on interpreting themes based on the surrounding context (Duriau et al., 2007).

The data comprises five recent media articles, investigative reports, and case studies detailing instances where AI systems were deployed in potentially unethical or risky ways by various actors in the context of the Israel-Hamas clashes in 2023. These incidents involve use cases such as military targeting, censorship, disinformation campaigns, biased algorithms, and synthesized media. The source of news information is explored from the database of AIAAIC, a public interest initiative that examines and advocates for real transparency and openness in AI and other technologies.

The articles are coded using an inductive coding process informed by Schumpeterian concepts of creative destruction, monopolistic capitalist motivations, and the destabilizing impacts of innovation. The goal is to uncover common themes aligned with these concepts, such as asymmetric power, profit incentives, lack of oversight, and social/ethical disruptions. Furthermore, the coded segments are analysed to examine how the development and deployment of AI technology intersect with Schumpeter’s insights about unchecked capitalist innovation. The contextual approach aids in interpreting the themes in relation to the broader social, political, and economic contexts of the conflict.

Limitations include the small convenience sample of articles, and potential biases in the primarily English-language media sources. Further research could expand to more incidents, a wider array of global media sources, and different conflicts. However, the current study offers an initial examination of the value of applying a Schumpeterian lens to contemporary AI risks and harms using in-depth contextual analysis of salient real-world cases linked to prominent disruption themes.

Analysis and Results

Incident #1 Meta's Biased AI Moderation

The 2023 accusations against Meta highlight systemic issues of bias and over-censorship in its AI content moderation systems during the Israel-Hamas conflict.Human Rights Watch's analysis of over 1000 cases revealed routine takedown of pro-Palestinian content through flawed policies, over-reliance on error-prone AI, and state influence. Videos documenting the conflict's impacts were also unfairly removed.Meta defended its actions citing challenges of fast-moving polarized conflicts. But its Oversight Board[1] found it had lowered moderation thresholds, increasing inaccurate removals, and lacked sufficient human moderators for non-English languages.

This case demonstrates key sources of bias and unaccountable censorship power in Meta's AI systems:

Algorithmic biases against Arabic/Palestinian expressions enabling over-censorship
Vague policies on prohibited speech skewing enforcement
Lack of cultural and contextual understanding by AI
Over-dependence on automated flagging without oversight
Geopolitical pressures shaping definitions of violent/graphic content

By disproportionately restricting Palestinian voices, Meta conferred unchecked power to control narratives to the state. This underscores the need for transparency in content policies, reducing algorithmic biases, and centring human rights in moderation frameworks.Overall, the incident epitomizes the ease of creative destruction of social equity through unchecked use of new innovations like AI moderation. It highlights the urgency of governance to constructively shape technology's evolution.

Incident #2 Israel's Lethal AI Targeting System

An investigation by Israel-based +972 Magazine and Local Call revealed that Israel's armed forces used an AI-powered system named Habsora to generate potential bombing targets during the Israel-Hamas war and calculate the number of people living in or close to the same building who were likely to be killed by a strike on the target. In one instance, Israel's military command 'knowingly' approved the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in an attempt to assassinate a single top Hamas military commander, according to the investigation. Furthermore, it appears that, as per the investigation, Habsora enabled the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to expand strikes to civilian sites like residences and hospitals, contributing to high casualties.

The use of Habsora's algorithms to calculate "acceptable" civilian deaths and generate bombing options removes human accountability and moral agency from life-and-death decisions. It also amplifies asymmetries as the technology is exclusively controlled by the state.

This incident underscores several key concerns around autonomous weapons:

The erosion of human oversight and control over lethal force
Bias and lack of discretion in algorithmic targeting
Lowering of moral thresholds on civilian harm
Opacity in how targeting decisions are made
Lack of accountability for erroneous strikes

Israel's use of Habsora to enable significant civilian casualties exemplifies Schumpeter's insights about technology's dual edges - granting states destructive power without ethical checks. It underscores the urgent need for global governance frameworks to ban fully autonomous lethal weapons and ensure meaningful human control over war-making applications of AI. This incident highlights how asymmetric access to AI can consolidate state power while destroying human rights protections. Managing risks requires centring human dignity and rights in innovation trajectories.

Incident #3 AI and Misinformation on Adobe Stock

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital media, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into platforms raises critical questions about transparency and governance. This case delves into Adobe Stock, a stock image subscription service that allows users to upload and sell AI-generated images. However, several concerning incidents have surfaced where Adobe is selling artificially generated, realistic images of the Israel-Hamas war. These images have been widely used across the internet without any indication that they are fake. This breach in transparency has significant consequences, particularly in the context of the Israel-Hamas conflict, as misinformation spreads easily when authenticity is compromised.

This incident serves as a poignant example highlighting the challenges associated with AI-synthesized media and the potential for misinformation to proliferate when governance and labeling protocols are not rigorously followed. As we explore this case through contextual content analysis, we aim to dissect the nuances of governance on platforms like Adobe Stock, emphasizing the importance of accurate labeling to ensure informed and responsible consumption of AI-generated content.

Adobe contends it mandated appropriate labeling as per its policies. But the case reveals gaps in enforcement that allow misinformation to spread - whether due to profit motivations or lack of oversight. It underscores issues of transparent AI governance and several significant concerns emerge:

Policies for disclosing AI media can be circumvented without diligent monitoring
End users may be unable to recognize synthetic media, amplifying disinformation
Transparency requirements are reactive; better technical methods for provenance are needed
Governance is fragmented across platforms; norms and standards are nascent

This incident epitomizes Schumpeter's theory that new innovations like generative AI can be co-opted to nefarious ends before social governance catches up. Constructively shaping AI progress requires proactive efforts by developers, platforms, and users alike. In essence, it highlights the urgent need for transparency, accountability and ethical codes of conduct to ensure AI-generated media enhances, rather than erodes, information integrity.

Incident #4. WhatsApp AI Palestinian Stickers

In a troubling revelation, WhatsApp’s (parent company: Meta) AI Stickers product, powered by the Llama 2 open-source language model and Emu image generation model, has come under scrutiny for generating biased and racially insensitive content. During the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, The Guardian uncovered a disturbing pattern: prompts using terms like 'Palestinian,' 'Palestine,' or 'Muslim boy Palestinian' resulted in AI Stickers producing images of children brandishing firearms. In stark contrast, prompts for 'Israeli boy' generated benign depictions of children engaged in ordinary activities like playing soccer and reading.

Launched in September 2023, AI Stickers was designed to convert text prompts into stickers for WhatsApp users. Meta acknowledged the issue, attributing it to a 'glitch,' but the incident raises profound concerns about inherent biases in artificial intelligence systems.

This case analysis delves into the implications of Meta's AI Stickers incident, shedding light on the perpetuation of racial stereotypes and potential discrimination embedded in generative models. The portrayal of Palestinian children as inherently violent, in contrast to the depiction of Israeli children as peaceful, underscores the risk of AI systems amplifying real-world prejudices. The incident prompts a critical examination of the role of oversight in mitigating the unintended consequences of biased AI models and calls for a deeper understanding of how these systems learn and replicate societal biases.

Meta calling it a "glitch" evades accountability for engrained bias. Several concerns emerge:

AI can propagate harmful stereotypes if unchecked for fairness
Training data biases feed directly into algorithmic behaviors
Lack of cultural nuance causes AI to misinterpret social contexts
Deflection of bias as "glitches" avoids responsibility

This case serves as a poignant illustration of Schumpeter's observation that unbridled innovation trajectories often mirror underlying systemic injustices. It underscores the imperative for addressing foundational biases rather than resorting to reactive solutions to ensure meaningful progress.The incident accentuates the importance of proactive risk assessment, the implementation of equitable data practices, and the prioritization of fairness in the design of generative AI systems. Beyond mere technical fixes, a comprehensive approach is essential to cultivate innovation that aligns with ethical principles and societal values.

Furthermore, the biased stickers depicting Palestinian children on WhatsApp exemplify the pitfalls of the swift commercialization of AI technologies. The pursuit of profit, when left unchecked, can inadvertently perpetuate social harms and reinforce biases without adequate oversight. This case underscores the need for a balanced approach that not only facilitates expression but also ensures that profit motives align with ethical considerations, fostering progress that is genuinely equitable and just.

Incident #5 AI-Generated Deepfakes

Amidst the Israel-Gaza conflict, an image circulating on social media purportedly showing a man rescuing children from the rubble has been identified as a probable deepfake. The image, shared extensively with over 80,000 shares, gained further traction when promoted on X (formerly Twitter) by the Chinese embassy in France. Siwei Lyu, Director of the Media Forensic Lab at the University of Buffalo, confirmed the image's classification as AI-generated through recent detection algorithms, highlighting anomalies in the hands and feet.

This discovery raises concerns about the growing prevalence of manipulated images disseminating disinformation during conflict situations. The incident underscores the rapid spread of deepfakes and their potential to distort public perceptions of events, calling for many concerns.

Viral spread fuels false deepfakes, dominating authentic reporting and distorting public discourse.
Technological sophistication impedes identification and debunking, amplifying the deceptive impact of deepfake technology.
Deepfakes are weaponized in conflicts, exploiting low regulation for political manipulation and disinformation.
The democratization of media manipulation through generative AI poses significant risks to information integrity.
Regulatory concerns emerge from lax oversight, allowing malicious exploitation of deepfake technology and highlighting the need for frameworks to curb misuse.
The incident underscores the potential for democratically governed AI progress to disrupt deepfake harms by enhancing information quality and provenance.

This case underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive approach to address the challenges posed by deepfake technology, combining regulatory measures, technological advancements, and public awareness campaigns to mitigate the spread of disinformation in conflict zones.

Discussion

The analysis reveals several concerning insights regarding the potential for AI innovations to be co-opted to destructive ends without ethical foundations and oversight.A predominant theme is the emergence of dangerous asymmetries in power, influence, and capability enabled by exclusive control over rapidly advancing AI systems. Schumpeter's insights of temporary monopolies ring starkly true in the age of AI, with state and corporate actors accruing tremendous unchecked power. This urgently underscores the need for governance frameworks that decentralize and democratize AI capabilities.

Another prominent theme is the propensity for profit motives to incentivize the weaponization and irresponsible use of AI innovations before ethical governance catches up. Practices like Adobe's uncontrolled spread of synthetic media and WhatsApp's biased stickers epitomize capitalist drives superseding social responsibility. This highlights the need to align innovation incentives with human rights and democratic values.

Moreover, the cases reveal AI's enormous potential for destabilizing societal disruption, from censorship to civilian deaths. Our institutions must be oriented to steer AI's evolution in societally constructive directions, creatively improving equity and welfare.Overall, the analysis implies a pressing need for renewed commitment to transparent, participative, and human-centred AI governance locally and globally. Ethical foundations prioritizing justice, responsibility, and human flourishing are indispensable to constructively manage the transformative power of AI. As Schumpeter foresaw, unmanaged capitalist innovation breeds both wonder and destruction. But with collective will and wisdom, we can temper the dangers and amplify the benefits.

[1]The Oversight Board is a body that makes consequential, precedent-setting content moderation decisions on the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, as a form of platform self-governance.

References

Duriau, V. J., Reger, R. K., & Pfarrer, M. D. (2007). A content analysis of the content analysis literature in organization studies: Research themes, data sources, and methodological refinements. Organizational research methods, 10(1), 5-34.

Schumpeter, J. A. (2013). Capitalism, socialism and democracy. routledge.

AIAAIC (AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Incidents and Controversies)

Investigations, Assessments, Audits Reports

§ Oversight Board (2023). Oversight Board issues first expedited decisions about Israel-Hamas conflict

§ Oversight Board (2023). 2023-049-IG-UA - Al-Shifa Hospital

§ Oversight Board (2023). 2023-050-FB-UA - Hostages kidnapped from Israel

§ Human Rights Watch (2023). Meta’s Broken Promises. Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook

§ +972 Magazine (2023). ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza

§ Australian Greens (2023). Meta’s Racist Depictions of Gun-Wielding Palestinian Children Needs Urgent Investigation from Esafety Commissioner

§ AFP (2023). Image of Palestinian carrying children out of rubble shows signs of AI

News, Commentary, Analysis (Website Links)

Dr. Rajesh Many is Assistant Professor School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam ,Kerala and the founding Director of The Centre for Technology and Human Development Studies (CTHDS) at Mahatma Gandhi University.

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The Intersection of Technology and Humanity: Artificial Intelligence

P. Kayalvizhi

Introduction

In the past few years technologies were improved drastically and the use of these technologies were improved massively. The evolution of technology was a fascinating journey which began with simple tools crafted by human for their basic needs to the Introduction of Computers, Internet, to the raise of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Bigdata.

Technologies were everywhere in our daily lives. It completely reshaped our human society, From the movement we wake up we use technologies to check messages, weather, time or to call someone.

We use technologies in work, schools, colleges and in home to communicate or to learn something through internet. Technologies and humans became inseparatable. It makes our work even more easier and also helps us to do things faster.

Smart Machines like computers and robots are getting smarter which helps us in many aspects, Superfast Internet like 5G makes everything quicker and supports more technology and Technology in the field of education have improved a lot, Tech in Education is like having a smart assistant that makes studying fun and interactive. On the other hand AI is a rapidly evolving in the field of healthcare, education, communication and agriculture.

Artificial intelligence(AI)

Artificial Intelligence is a branch of Computer Science by which we can create intelligent machines which can behave like a human, think like humans and able to make human decisions. It is the capacity of a machine to imitate intelligent human behaviour. According to my point of view Artificial Intelligence represents the Intersection of Technology and Humanity. Artificial Intelligence is where technology and humanity meets.

It helps humans in a lot of ways and also used in a lot of fields. It has pros as well as cons, the thing is we have to use it ethically and should align it with human values. Artificial Intelligence is just a tool it doesn’t make any decisions itself, it simply reflects the choices and intentions of human creators. It is our responsibility to use it ethically.

The Integration of Artificial Intelligence into human society has brought a remarkable transformation into our human society from healthcare to Automation, It completely reshaped our society and human experiences.

AI in Heathcare:

The integration of Artificial Intelligence in heathcare helps in improving patient care, diagnostic accurately and medical research.Some examples of AI in healthcare are:

Robotic Surgery- It is performed or assisted with the help of robots. By using robots in surgery the surgery is performed accurately and flexibly.Robotic Surgery is useful for challenging surgeries like Organ Transplants,Tumour Removal Surgeries, Gallstone Surgeries etc..

Virtual nursing assistants-This is especially useful for patients who have been recently discharged or patients who require home care.The virtual assistant would be accessible through an app on the phone, it would conduct daily check-ins with the patients and answer any of their questions. It would then go ahead and feed all the information back to the hospital.

Medical imaging-Tools such as CT Scans, MRI Scans and X-Rays are used to diagnosis cancers and tumours. Once the Scans are done, radiologist review the images for the signs of diseases.An AI algorithm can easily be fed images labelled by radiologists and it can easily excel radiologist at finding cancers.In one research it was shown that a neural network was 99% accurate atdiagnosing a cancer as opposed to 38% accuracy achieved by doctors. This can increase in early detection of cancers therefore saving many lives.

AI in Agriculture:

AI is increasingly playing a vital role in transforming agriculture, offering innovative solutions to various challenges faced by farmers in agriculture. Here are some impacts of AI in agriculture.

Weather & price Forecasting- It is difficult for the farmers to take the right decision for harvesting, sowing seeds, and soli preparing due to climate change. But with the help of AI weather forecasting, farmers can have information on weather analysis, and accordingly, they can plan for the type of crop to grow, seeds to sow, and harvesting the crop.

Agriculture Robotics- Robotics is being widely used in different sectors, mainly in manufacturing or to perform complex tasks. Nowadays, different AI companies are developing robots to be employed in the Agriculture sector. These AI robots are developed in such a way that they can perform multiple tasks in farming.AI robots are also trained in checking the quality of crops, detect and controlling weeds, and harvesting the crop with faster speed compared to a human.

Intelligent Spraying- With AI sensors, weed can be detected easily, and it also detects weed affected areas. On finding such areas, herbicides can be precisely sprayed to reduce the use of herbicides and also saves time and crop. There are different AI companies that are building robots with AI and computer vision, which can precisely spray on weeds. The use of AI sprayers can widely reduce the number of chemicals to be used on fields, and hence improves the quality of crops and also saves money.

Disease Diagnosis- With AI predictions, farmers can get knowledge of diseases easily. With this, they can easily diagnose diseases with proper strategy and on time. It can save the life of plants and farmer's time. To do this, firstly, images of plants are pre-processed using computer vision technology. This ensures that plant images are properly divided into the diseased and non-diseased parts. After detection, the diseased part is cropped and send to labs for further diagnosis. This technique also helps in the detection of pests, deficiency of nutrients, and many more.

AI in Education:

Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a revolutionary force in the field of education. AI enhances the quality and accessibility of education. Some examples for AI in education are Personalized learning, Adaptive automated tools, Automated grading and Virtual tutors.

Ethical Consideration:

Ethical Consideration is ensuring that the development or use of AI align with human values and ethics, it should be created for the well being of the individuals of society. Some ethical considerations of AI are

Being fair to everyone: Sometimes AI can unintentionally treat people unfair due to Biased Information, so we have to make sure that AI doesn’t discriminate certain groups.

Understanding how AI understand things: If AI makes any decisions we can’t figure out why it choose that particular decision or that particular option. That can be a problem, we want AI to be clear about why it take that particular option so that we can trust it.

Keeping Our Personal Info Safe:AI often uses a lot of our personal information. We need to ensure that this data is handled carefully to protect our privacy and prevent any misuse.

Not Losing Jobs to Machines:With AI doing more tasks, some worry that it might replace jobs. We need to find a balance so that while AI helps, it doesn’t leave people without work.

Making Sure AI Doesn’t Do Harm:In areas like self-driving cars or healthcare, AI can make decisions on its own. We need to be sure that these decisions are safe and don’t cause harm, and figure out who is responsible if something goes wrong.

Keeping AI Systems Secure: Just like we protect our computers from viruses, we need to make sure that AI systems are safe from bad actors who might try to use them for harmful purposes.

Watching Out for Social Changes:AI can affect how we interact with each other and what information we see. We need to understand and manage these changes to make sure they are positive for society.

Thinking About the Future Impact:As AI continues to improve, we should consider the long-term effects it might have on jobs, society, and even how we live. It’s important to plan for these changes.

In simple terms, we want AI to be helpful, fair, and safe. By addressing these concerns, we can make sure that AI benefits everyone in a positive way.

Conclusion:

The intersection of technology and humanity is like where advanced tools and gadgets meet our everyday lives. It’s the place where cool innovations makes life better but we also need to be careful that these cool things don’t cause problems.We have to balance technology and humanity; its like finding the right mix. We want all the benefits of the technology, but also want to make sure that it respects our values and ethics

It is good to have cool technologies that helps humans around us. But we have to make sure that those technologies should respect human values and ethics, it should not harm humans. It should lead way to sustainable and ethical society.

P. Kayalvizhi is I st year Student, Master of Computer Applications (MCA) Department of Computer Science and Applications, The Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University) Gandhigram – 624302, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu

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Ethics in Innovation

Dr. Sunil H. Ganatra

Innovation refers to the process of introducing new ideas, methods, products, or services to bring about positive change or improvement. It involves the application of creative thinking and the development of novel solutions to address existing challenges or meet new needs. Primarily, innovation occurs in the science and technology fields.

Innovation can manifest in different forms, such as incremental improvements to existing products or services, radical breakthroughs that introduce entirely new concepts or disruptive innovations that transform industries and markets. It plays a crucial role in driving economic growth, improving quality of life, and addressing complex global issues.

The birth of innovation is the need for solutions to various challenges in the present day. Innovation originates in the mind of an individual. The creativity of an individual takes the lead and brings certain new concepts or ideas. This creativity may be the creativity of an individual or a group of people.

The main objective of any innovation is to develop a technology that is more efficient, affordable, and sustainable. Today, the main objective is to bring technology to sustainability. Mainly, the innovation is to bring better products or technologies, which can be managed very easily and should be sustained in the present-day environment.

The success of the commercialization of innovation depends on how it adapts to the current scenario and process. For example, there is a need to bring new advancements in the field of “electricity generation." Slowly, society is adapting to the generation of electricity from solar panels. If anyone introduces new technology based on fossil fuels, hardly any society will accept it.

While innovation brings about numerous benefits, it can also pose challenges and create problems. A few among them are as follows:

a. Dependency on technology: Society's increasing reliance on technology can create vulnerabilities, particularly if critical systems are disrupted. Dependency on technology for essential services can pose risks in the event of system failures or cyber threats.

b. Loneliness: Advances in communication technology, while providing connectivity, can also contribute to social isolation, as individuals may spend more time engaging with screens than with people in person. This brings lots of psychological problems and depression.

c. Culture change: Rapid innovation can lead to cultural shifts that some individuals or communities may find challenging or disruptive. Changes in social norms, values, and communication patterns can create tensions. It takes no time to break age-old cultures and customs. Human values shift, a new concept of values emerges, and slowly, humanity vanishes.

d. Risk of correctness: In the present day, artificial intelligence has taken control of numerous day-to-day routines. AI is trained and then used to predict the output. If the training is based on wrong or unethical data, what is produced is also unethical. Issues like bias in algorithms, accountability for AI decisions, and ethical considerations in areas like biotechnology can be complex.

e. Environmental problems: Present-day technology is on par. It provides huge comfort to individuals in their day-to-day lives. The generation of electricity using fossil fuels has created health problems in urban and nearby rural areas. Today, the air in major cities is already polluted, and now it shows the danger level. Also, global warming is increasing at an alarming speed. The day is not far away when we will have to live in a polluted environment, which cannot be reversible. The present scenario of global warming is already at a higher danger level, and in no time it will reach the highest level of pollution.

f. Inequalities in society: Innovation may contribute to economic inequality if the benefits are not distributed equitably. Those with access to and control over new technologies may disproportionately benefit, exacerbating existing social and economic disparities.

g. Security risk: New innovations are also directed towards identifying individuals and recording individuals' physical and biological details. In the name of security, individuality is lost. Security cameras are everywhere to look into your act, process, and mood. It not only records the bad activities of individuals but also their good activities. There should be a space for every individual. In reality, on the roads and in offices, a number of cameras are capturing the activities of each and every individual, irrespective of their nature. This process limits the free expression of an individual.

h. Unemployment: New innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) help to execute a variety of tasks without human interference. It can write a letter, an essay, a note, etc. The number of human-oriented jobs is shifting to AI, particularly in engineering industries. This leads to unemployment in various sectors. It is expected that complete office desk-top work will be shifted to AI tomorrow. In that case, the office clerk, manager, etc. posts will be dissolved.

i. Regulation: Today, innovation is evolving at the fastest possible speed. Each new innovation may be required to fit into society by abiding by the present rules and regulations. Sometimes, it is required to change the rules as per innovation. Due to the number of innovations, it is very difficult to bring all of them under the current rule or to bring changes to the rule. There is a threat of a lack of regulation for new innovations. This may raise new ethical issues in society.

There is an urgent need to address these challenges with positive and investigative approaches. All the stakeholders, like policymakers, industries, and society, should come together to answer these challenges. The process of implementing new innovations should ensure that they provide maximum benefits to society and dissolve the probable negative consequences. While implementing, the stakeholders should consider the sustainability, inclusivity, ethical measures, and proper governance of new technologies.

The emergence of new technology and its thoughtless implementation cause various ethical issues. The number of such issues is identifiable. Today, the common man really does not know the use and misuse of his physical and biological data.

Certain ethical issues are engulfing the whole society, and still today there is no answer to resolve them. A few among them are as follows:

a. Wealth-centric development: Innovations are for the growth of the economy and commerce. It is primarily concentrated on wealth generation. It is not a human-centric development. What is required is human-centric technology. Gandhi's emphasis on human values and the well-being of individuals would likely lead him to advocate for innovations that prioritize the betterment of human lives. Technologies should be designed with the aim of serving the needs of the people and promoting social welfare.

b. Sustainability: The innovations are not keen on sustainability. The rampant use of natural resources for the implementation of new technologies is destroying the environment and also exhausting natural resources. For example, lead batteries have a life of only 3 to 5 years. To procure lead from mines and implement it into batteries takes a huge amount of water and that leads to water pollution. The positioning of water is dangerous to aquatic life systems. This water also percolates into the human water distribution line and generates numerous non-curable health problems.

c. Violence and Non-Collaboration: The resources of new innovation are based on numerous natural resources and life systems. Numbers of innovations are emerging after utilising the valuable aquatic and non-aquatic life systems. This is leading to the extinction of a number of species. The use of new products like plastics penetrates the river and sea water, killing innocent aquatic and non-aquatic animals and plants. The collaborative concept of utilizing technology is vanishing. Technologies are individual-centric. For example, a mobile phone. Everyone needs their own mobile phone, whereas in older days, the landline phone could be used by the whole family.

d. Human Rights: Innovation also percolates into human rights and their privacy. Today, each and every act of a human being is watched by technology. With the emergence of AI, these acts will be evaluated. The individual will be enveloped in a view defined by AI. That way, all individuals will be categorized with certain defined tags. That is nothing but transforming humans into materials. This is also a violation of human rights and his expressions.

e. Biological Identity: The genome project has envisaged the total human genes. It has deciphered the complete human DNA. The technology can be utilized to produce "super-human" or "non-intelligent workaholic humans." New emerging technology is providing ways to bring new properties and capabilities to newborn babies. This will lead to specialised babies, which will surely destroy the natural human society. Interference with the human genetic code should be called unethical. Innovation is also aimed at bringing new spices from plants and animals. This may disturb the current biodiversity in nature.

f. Accountability: Once innovative technology is implemented, there is always a question of accountability for its failure. Innovation developed in laboratories is implemented by commercial industries. The outcome initially may be useful, but in due course, it may cause harm to the environment. In that case, there is no stakeholder who can take accountability for the failure of technology.

g. Transparency: The technology newly evolved collects human physical and biological data. Human beings are forced to adopt these technologies. There is no full-proof system that informs the user about the data collected and its use. The data is sold in the market without the consent of the data originator. The data is also misused by a number of statutory and non-statutory bodies. The rules to control these activities are flexible, and the culprit easily escapes legal punishment.

This is an era of new innovation. Every day, new technologies are introduced with better functionalities and costs. The ethical issues should be addressed by the authorized agencies, and they must be vigilant by adopting new methodologies. In conclusion, as we stand on the precipice of transformative technological advancements, ethical considerations in innovation must not be an afterthought but a fundamental guiding principle. Balancing progress with ethical responsibility is not only a moral imperative but also a pragmatic necessity to build trust, mitigate risks, and create a future where innovations contribute positively to the well-being of individuals and society as a whole. By integrating ethical considerations into the fabric of innovation, we can navigate the frontiers of progress with wisdom, foresight, and a commitment to the greater good.

Dr. Sunil H. Ganatra,Professor,Govt. Institute of Science, Nagpur, M.S.(India):Email:sunilganatra@gmail.com

Reflections on Ethical Considerations in

Innovation

Dr. Mythili P. Rao

Abstract :Innovation, in any sphere, is something which improve on the existing conditions or structures. While we celebrate and welcome innovations in all domains, history is replete with stories of innovations which have been used more for selfish and destructive purposes than for the good of all. Like all the other domains of knowledge, when the outcome is not conducive in the long run we start analysing the ethical aspects of those innovations. This paper will make an attempt at exploring the ethical aspects of innovations through some case studies.

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Innovation in science and technology have not only become the norm today but is also celebrated. Since time immemorial we have witnessed how any innovation, which is of course mainly in sciences, have both supported and disrupted life on planet. It is a double-edged sword and something which comes with innumerable implications.

1. While innovating the focus being more on developing the product that not much thought is given to the possible impact of the innovation on other factors that affect life or environment. Therefore, we found Alfred Nobel discovering TNT which was intended to be usedas a detonator only for earth moving but was later used in War for killing. When his brother died it was confused as his death and someone published an obituary for him calling him “Merchant of Death” This made him realise the enormity of his invention but then it was too late to retract it. He tried to redeem by instituting the Nobel Awards.

2. Another example from world history could be on Fritz Haber who is known as the Father of Chemical Warfare for his work on creating poisonous gases using chlorine during World War I. Specifically through this he created Zyklon B, popularly known as the Mustard Gas, while working under the Nazis leading to the death of millions of Jews in the Holocaust. Among all the other important contributions by him in the field of Electrochemistry he was instrumental in later creating the Haber-Bosch process for the large-scale synthesis of fertiliser, essentially saving the agriculture industry.

It is clear, therefore, that innovation can work both the ways. A lot depends on the person who is handling it. It should be understood that any scientist or innovator does not probably intentionally create something destructive but the idea is to be alert and aware of the consequences of the creation.

3. Bangalore in the state of Karnataka in India was known as the city of lakes. There are historical evidences which say that the city had close to more than 200 lakes which fulfilled the need for wate in household consumption and agriculture. There was an active community engagement and commitment in this matter. But the latest studies have shown how the city has lost almost 90% of this natural resource. The primary reason for this is the aggressive urbanisation that it has witnessed since the boom in the software and technology industry. While on one hand the innumerable innovations in software and technology gave this city a unique identity of the ‘Silicon city of India’ sadly it lost out on the environmental richness that it once took pride in!

4. Borehole drilling is another innovation in the world of technology which is now the reason for the danger of the rapidly depleting potable groundwater facing the city of Bangalore! A technology which was once designed for geotechnical applications was brought to India by UNICEF in 1970 mainly to deal with the shortage of potable water. But very soon borewells started replacing open wells. The challenge here was that while in open wells the water level was visible and helped us in regulating our usage of the same. With closed borewells this advantage was lost and led to indiscriminate usage of water. What has added to this challenge is that over a period of time, nay decades, the water level is going lower and lower and we are digging deeper and deeper. One can understand the kind of danger that this is posing to the natural storage of water in the deep recesses of earth. Very soon, this resource will too dry up and not only the human population but the natural resources in and around the city. Due to the various vested interests involved in this entire process there does not seem to be any solution for this challenge since people continue to dig into the depths of mother earth for water.

5. The hottest topic of the question of ethics in innovations is again related to technology, especially in terms of Artificial Intelligence, Mobile technology, channels of online technology and so on. Data theft, hacking, betting, online financial scams are all an outcome of the advanced levels of technology which were initially designed to assist human endeavours are now doing the opposite while landing in wrong hands. Numerous AI Tools for writing have become a source for worry and concern since students and writers are blatantly taking their support for writing. The ethical dilemmas in these aspects have increased to such a great extent that UNESCO has created a page for this on its website. It is clear that something which can help us in containing and solving crimes can also create more avenues for committing crime!!

6. Another area of concern for ethical practices is the area of Medicine. In spite of the advancements in the field of medicine we still see deaths due to the most basic diseases especially in the sections of society which do not have access to such good medical facilities only because they cannot afford it. Does this, then, mean that innovations in Pharmaceuticals, Medicine are only for the consumption of the rich or those who can afford it?

Many more such issues that one can think of for eg. Plastic, Electric Vehicles, Blue Economy and so on which are innovative ideas no doubt but have larger implications on nature and the resources at the disposal of all living beings.But human beings who think that they have an unlimited right on these resources are using this unthinkingly and selfishly. It is not clear if we can have any straightforward solutions to this or if we can have any framework for making everyone think about the long-term implications of any innovation that they may be introducing in the world. We will only have to rely on the strength of the moral compass in each individual.

Dr. Mythili P. Rao Bangalore Email:raomythil@gmail.com

Sustainability, global welfare, and materialistic ambitions

Satyajeet Prakash Patil

Sustainability

Let us commence with the notion of sustainability, a concept rooted in the idea of meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. As articulated in the Brundtland Report in 1987, sustainability has become a global pursuit, especially as developing countries seek ways to progress without detriment to the future.

Gandhi's wisdom echoes loudly here – "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed." Unfortunately, the humor in today's world lies in the fact that people travel worldwide to discuss nature rather than embodying its principles. Sustainability is not an abstract concept; it is a principle accessible to everyone in their daily lives. Even the smallest actions can contribute to significant change. It involves exercising control over wants, fostering reasonableness, and recognizing our collective responsibility toward nature.

Moreover, sustainability extends beyond environmental considerations; it encompasses social and economic aspects. Supporting local businesses, promoting fair trade, and advocating for social equity are integral components of a sustainable lifestyle, aligning seamlessly with Gandhian principles.

Global Welfare

हेविश्वचीमाझेघर | ऐसीमतीजयाचीस्थिर

किंबहुनाचराचर | आपणचीजाहला|| – श्रीज्ञानेश्वर

The term "global" takes us to Sant Dnyaneshwar's perspective, where the entire world is considered our home. This holistic view extends beyond human interactions to encompass nature, resources, air, water, and everything that constitutes the richness of our Earth.

In contemporary times, global connectivity facilitated by the internet has created an intricate web of relationships, not just in logistics but also in cultural understanding. The significance of global connectivity goes beyond mere technological advancements; it plays a pivotal role in developing cultural understanding, contributing to the collective growth of humanity. This interconnectedness allows us to learn about and appreciate diverse cultures, fostering a profound sense of global unity.

However, the distribution of resources globally is uneven, leading to disparities in sustainability efforts. Collaborative efforts among nations are essential to address these global challenges. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), along with the work of international organizations, emphasize the need for global cooperation to enhance the well-being of populations worldwide.

Materialistic Ambitions

Materialistic aspirations, centered on the acquisition of possessions and wealth as the ultimate source of happiness and success, contradict Gandhian ideals. It is evident that societal influences play a significant role in fostering materialism, leading individuals to prioritize artificial needs over genuine necessities. The pervasive impact of marketing strategies, fueled by personalized advertisements and impulsive buying trends, contributes to a shift towards Western-style consumerism. Notably, the prevalence of EMI-based purchases of 7 out of 10 iPhones in India, highlights the extensive influence exerted by the marketing industry. In stark contrast to Gandhian principles, Western materialism promotes maximum production and consumption, leading to a blurred distinction between real and unreal. This rampant consumerism is unsustainable, causing irreversible damage to the environment and disrupting the delicate balance of nature. Gandhi's philosophy, echoed by economist Kaushik Basu, stresses the importance of controlling wants. Gandhi advocated a departure from excessive materialistic consumption and a return to sustainable and meaningful living, emphasizing the importance of respecting nature's limits for the well-being of humanity.

Gandhian Views

Gandhi, although predating the term "sustainable development," foresaw and addressed issues related to sustainability. Addressing challenges like poverty and sanitation, Gandhi's vision of sustainability revolved around a trinity of individual, society, and nature. His advocacy for khadi over foreign cloth exemplified a sustainable approach. Emphasizing learning from, rather than about, nature, Gandhi viewed humans as integral to the ecosystem, promoting harmonious coexistence. Concepts like "Swadeshi" and "Swaraj" advocated self-reliance and community interdependence for sustainable development.

Global welfare was a cornerstone of Gandhi's philosophy, rooted in nonviolence and Sarvodaya, or the welfare of all. His talisman urged considering the impact of decisions on the most marginalized globally. Gandhi believed in addressing inequality peacefully, emphasizing nonviolence and peace for the welfare of all.

Gandhi's thoughts on materialistic ambitions caution against the restless pursuit of desires. He argued for needs-based consumption and restraining wants to guarantee basic needs for everyone. Advocating for production by the masses rather than mass production, Gandhi warned against the depletion of natural resources. He foresaw the limitations of Western materialism, asserting that material enjoyment does not provide sublime peace. Gandhi's prophetic insights are reflected in the contemporary turn towards religiosity, spirituality, and meditation as individuals seek solace from the limitations of materialism and consumerism.

What News and Reports Say

The Indus Valley Annual Report 2023 sheds light on various economic aspects. ¹

Despite a per capita income of $2450, approximately 26% of Indians, equivalent to 373 million people, are reported to be below the poverty line. The formal, organized workforce constitutes only 10% of the total workforce, emphasizing the prevalence of unorganized labor. The inflation rate, standing at 6.8%, raises questions about whether individuals receive salaries adjusted for inflation. Notably, Tier 1 India, with 120 million people, contributes $1.4 trillion to the GDP, while Tier 3 India, with a staggering 1200 million people, contributes $1.8 trillion. This disparity is further highlighted by the concentration of startup activities in Tier 1 and Tier 2 India, leaving the majority of the population in Tier 3 underserved. Additionally, a stark income inequality is evident, as 1% of Indians take home 22% of the country's income. Despite the creation of 4 million gig economy jobs by Indian startups, concerns linger regarding the permanence and adequacy of compensation for these positions.

In recent news, Gautam Adani, the Chairperson of the Adani Group, has surpassed Mukesh Ambani to become India's and Asia's richest individual, with a net worth of $94.5 billion.²Concurrently, the Cabinet, under the Prime Minister's leadership, has announced a five-year provision of free food grains to approximately 81.35 crore beneficiaries through the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).³ These two developments highlight the significant economic disparities in India, echoing Joan Robinson's observation that “Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true.” The contrasting fortunes of individual billionaires and the government's initiative to provide free food grains underscore the multifaceted nature of India's economic landscape.

Way Toward Sustainability and Global Welfare

Education emerges as a powerful tool for change. Gandhi underscores the transformative role of education as a holistic process encompassing intellectual, emotional, and practical growth. Nai Talim, a foundational concept, advocates for hands-on learning, emphasizing activities to nurture physical, intellectual, and moral development in children. The essence lies not merely in growth but in purposeful and mindful progress. Addressing global challenges involves local action, with an emphasis on grassroots governance, empowering communities to manage their resources and make decisions collectively. This approach positions education not only as a personal development tool but as a catalyst for positive societal change.

Moreover, the Gandhian perspective on sustainable practices underscores the impact of individual actions on Sustainable Development and nature conservation. Every decision becomes a potential driver for personal and societal change when approached with self-observation, self-examination, and a connection to oneself. Emphasizing self-sufficiency at the local level, Gandhi encourages responsible consumption of local resources, promoting mindfulness in purchasing and exploring sustainable alternatives. By cultivating a sense of responsibility towards our immediate environment, individuals contribute to a healthier, more sustainable future for both themselves and the planet through thoughtful daily choices.

Real-life Examples

Dr.H.K.S. Swami, a devoted professor fromChitradurg Karnataka, is a staunch advocate of the Khadi philosophy. Actively involved in promoting Khadi, he organizes events to raise awareness about this traditional fabric. His commitment is exemplified by his daughters, Rachna and Archana, who have been wearing Khadi since childhood and even make their own Khadi clothes. Dr. Swami's family forms a united front in championing Khadi, showcasing that individual choices, starting at the personal level, can contribute significantly to broader societal changes. Their active participation in events underscores their dedication to Gandhian principles.

Dr. Ulhas Jaju has played a pivotal role in the transformative journey towards healthcare self-sufficiency in rural India, aligning his vision with Mahatma Gandhi's dream of achieving independence at both the national and village levels. Dr. Jaju's approach emphasizes affordable healthcare, steering clear of free services to maintain integrity and quality. His leadership at Sewagram Medical College stands out for its unconventional organizational structure, relying on a network of self-sufficient village healthcare workers, including dedicated women from Self Help Groups, to act as facilitators and raise health awareness. The implementation of initiatives like the Sorghum Scheme, Village Fund, and Health Insurance Scheme reflects Dr. Jaju's commitment to providing accessible and affordable healthcare. Beyond his medical expertise, Dr. Ulhas Jaju embodies Gandhian values in his daily life by practicing the craft of making his own khadi clothes alongside his role as a doctor. This dual commitment further showcases his dedication to self-reliance and exemplifies the harmonious integration of traditional principles with modern professional responsibilities.⁴

Organisations workings toward Sustainability

Brown Living⁵ is dedicated to making sustainable living easy and affordable through its website, brownliving.in, which stands out as India's first plastic-free marketplace. The platform thoughtfully selects a range of everyday products that are environmentally friendly and ethically sourced, allowing individuals to live sustainably with reduced waste. The company actively supports artisan groups and eco-friendly brands committed to environmental well-being. With a goal to establish India's largest platform for sustainable living, Brown Living offers over 65,000 eco-friendly products and empowers artisans, women entrepreneurs, and innovators to combat plastic pollution, reinforcing their strong commitment to sustainability.

M.R. Yogananda, the visionary behind Bengaluru-based Mrinmayee⁶, has championed sustainable construction practices for nearly four decades. By constructing his own home with stabilised mud blocks in the 1980s, Yogananda initiated a mud-revolution that showcased the durability and eco-friendliness of this alternative material. Since then, Mrinmayee has actively engaged in training artisans, hosting workshops, and collaborating with NGO Gramavidya to propagate the sustainable benefits of mud blocks. Comprising mud, cement, sand, and lime, stabilised mud blocks not only offer a cost-effective solution but also significantly reduce steel and concrete consumption while eliminating the need for plastering. Through its subsidiary Mahijaa, the firm specializes in sustainable design consultancy, emphasizing low embodied energy and environmentally friendly architectural practices.

Sampoorna Bamboo Kendra (SBK)⁷ has emerged as a pioneering force in Melghat, Maharashtra, since its inception in 1995. Committed to addressing rural challenges, SBK has implemented a comprehensive and sustainable model centered around bamboo cultivation. Through training programs and cooperative initiatives, SBK not only empowers local artisans but also contributes to the economic well-being of the community by creating a robust market for bamboo products. The organization's focus on skill development, low-cost bamboo housing, and eco-friendly employment through the 'Viswakarma Vidyalaya' showcases a holistic approach to sustainability. SBK's commitment to stable pricing, direct sales, and responsible resource utilization demonstrates how bamboo can serve as a resilient crop, fostering both environmental stewardship and economic sustainability in the region.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the path toward sustainability and global welfare is intricate but navigable, with Gandhi's philosophy serving as a guiding light that emphasizes the transformation of individuals from the inside out. The pursuit of non-violence and peace is integral to achieving a harmonious and sustainable world. As Gandhi aptly put it, "The world will live in peace only when the individuals composing it make up their mind to do so." Acknowledging the significance of collective efforts, it is essential to recognize that there are people actively working for the betterment of humanity. If everybody decides to contribute, even in a small manner, it can create a greater good for both nature and humanity, fostering a positive and lasting impact on the global community.

The philosophy of Gandhiji have been beautifully summarised by professor Schumacher in the following lines.

"Towards smallness rather than gigantism;

towards simplification rather than growing complexities;

towards capital saving rather than labour savings;

and towards nonviolence in a rather generalised sense."

References :

1. https://blume.vc/reports/indus-valley-annual-report-2023

2. https://www.livemint.com/companies/people/gautam-adani-again-overtakes-mukesh-ambani-as-indias-richest-man-both-climb-spots-on-world-rich-list-11704429380423.html

3. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pmgkay-extended-for-5-years-anurag-thakur-9047166/

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPiGkrpUJLk

5. https://brownliving.in/

6. http://www.mahijaa.com/

7. https://www.sampoornabamboo.org/

Satyajeet Patil is Fellow, IFPNP 2023 Email:satyajeetpatil101@gmail.com

Sustainability and Shifting Priorities in Development and technology at the Grassroots

Dr.Abhilash Babu

Introduction

Within the framework of discussions on sustainable development, the study focuses on how development and technological goals are changing in the discourses on local development. Its roots can be seen in the discussions and events that arose during the Cold War's post-World War II era. Nearly every event that occurred in the second half of the 20th century, including the spread of technology and the direction of progress, was influenced by the US-Soviet cold war. The prospects for millions of people remained dire in the aftermath of the war leading American officials to suggest relief initiatives of a never-before-seen magnitude. The US and Britain's aid initiatives for Western Europe and Japan helped them achieve their political objective of restraining the rise of communist regimes. The recipient countries' growth paths were greatly aided and strengthened by these aid initiatives. These top-down, Western conceptions of development, which prioritised large-scale infrastructure technologies and industrial plants as showcases, were based on economic expansion. Farm initiatives focused on large-scale mechanisation, costly irrigation systems, hybrid seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides in rural areas. Despite their good intentions, these technocratic programmes frequently led to unsatisfactory results, creating extremely isolated but reasonably prosperous communities and causing relative stagnation in the wider population. Concerns concerning traditional development tactics have been raised by the inability to generate jobs and the widening regional gaps; as a result, new perspectives on development and technology have entered the development discourse. In this setting, a greater concern regarding the detrimental social and environmental repercussions of the advent of contemporary technologies has surfaced in academia and politics alike. Newer technical solutions gradually gained ground in the development discussionand at the same time that discourses on sustainable development and environmentalism emerged. The current study investigates how the global movement for sustainable development goes hand in hand with capitalist interest and how it hegemonically reshape debate on localdevelopment and technological solutions in the developing countries.

Changing Geo-politics and development intervention

The major shift in paradigms in technology diffusion is coincided with the political unrest begins with the World War II. Two years after the end of the war, the prospects for millions of people remained grim amid the devastation, prompting American leaders to propose aid programs on an unprecedented scale[i]. The Marshal Plan of America was an important landmark to this direction.Marshal Plan was a deliberate intervention, under the guise of altruism, to bolt the American economic and military hegemony over the other countries. The immediate aim was the spreading of communism in Eastern Europe through economic and political stabilisation of regimes through development assistance. These aid programmes served a major role in spreading and reinforcing the path of development in the recipient countries. These Western notions of development were centred on the economic growth and continued to follow the top-to bottom down approach with emphasize on large-scale infrastructure technologies or showcase industrial plants[ii]. In rural areas, farm programmes had a focus on large scale mechanisation, expensive irrigation schemes, hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides[iii].

However well intentioned, such programs with a technocratic approach often produced disappointing outcomes, resulting in highly separated, relatively well-off enclaves and with relative stagnation among the larger community.[iv]The failure to create employment and growing regional disparities has raised concerns about the conventional development strategies and new discourses on development and technologies emerged in the development debate. In this context a larger concern has emerged both in the academics and politics about the negative social and environmental effects of the introduction of modern technologies[v].

The development debate gradually shifted towards newer technological options, which coincided with the emerging environmentalism. These environmental movements opposed any human activities, which were harmful to the environment in the long run. It viewed ‘big’ technologies as socially, economically and environmentally not sustainable. So the entire debate was shifted towards the notion of “effective utilization” and “sustainability”[vi].These concepts catch the attention of international aid agencies and became a decisive factor in the policy making. The next section discusses the shift of international discourse towards sustainability and the integration of this concept with appropriate technology.

Sustainability and Shifting Priorities in Development

The concept of ‘sustainable development’ echoes a second wave of modern environmentalism to tackle environmental problems through consensus and negotiation rather than protesting against it[vii]. The first movement is referred as the counter culture movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Even though, their effort, which resonates with the experiences of the victims of pollution, were characterised as being anti-development[viii]. The second wave of environmentalism in the 1980s, armed with scientific evidence, had much broader support and involved government, business people, and economists in the promotion of sustainable development[ix]. It was endorsed by the strategies of IUCN, UNEPT and WWF. But the strategies adopted by these organisations were more technocratic in nature and neglected the social issues. The concept of sustainable development received a wider social meaning through the publication of the document called “ our common future” by the World commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987 , widely known as Brundtland report.

The Commission defined sustainable development as: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”. The report successfully articulates the poverty-environment nexus and shed the elitist tag attached to environmental movements during 1970s.The Brundtland report brought forth the environmental issues along with the debate on economic growth. It was a path breaking event in the international debate on development. The report’s popularity has attained a level to the extent that, it has since been the buzz Phrase of almost every international donor institutions, NGOs and national policies.The principle of sustainable development was further reinforced by the Rio Earth Summit (1992). The summit concluded with the preparation of a document called Agenda 21 which was a blueprint for global partnership for sustainable development[x]. It addressed a range of environmental and developmental issues and acts as a guideline to the countries to chalk out strategy for sustainable development. In order to monitor and promote the Agenda 21 in each member countries, UN has created a separate agency called “Commission on Sustainable Development” (CSD). As a result several industrialised countries chalked out strategies for their sustainable development following the guidelines of Agenda 21[xi].

The report of UN’s,world summit for social development held at Copenhagen ,Denmark in 1995 states that “economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development”[xii]. It continues that “equitable social development that recognizes empowering the poor to utilize environmental resources sustainably is a necessary foundation for sustainable development”.[xiii]One of the marked importance of this report was that it points to the unsustainable consumption pattern of the industrialized countries as the major cause of environmental deterioration that aggravates poverty and imbalances not addressed by the previous ones[xiv].

Now, the concept of sustainable development has got the legitimacy not only from the governments but also from the larger civil society. Even the international economicinstitutions like ‘The World Bank’ has sought to get a new reputation from environmentalists and developmentalists by funding for research on environmental issues. Parallel to these developments, “The World Business Council for Sustainable development” was formed in 1995, by the association of 125 international companies with the aim of encouraging high standards of environmental management in business'[xv]. Besides, the business community, many trade associations have also supported the sustainable development initiatives[xvi].

A major change that these discourses created in the development debate is the assertion that that “resources and environments serve economic functions and have positive economic value”[xvii]. According to this view natural environment should be treated as labour and capital which can be exchanged and used as a commodity[xviii]. The commissioner of the “Commonwealth Government Resource Assessment” David Jameshas said “with better management of natural resources we could obtain a larger supply and wider range of goods and services. This is the central notion of sustainable development.”[xix].At this juncture the concept of sustainable development merges with the market which is, according to the economist’s point of view, the efficient way of allocating those resources and the management of the environment is essentially an economic problem[xx].According to this point of view, environmental degradation is equated with the failure of the market system to emulate economic and other benefits from the former. It is argued that the problem of common access and mismanagement of the environmental resources tends to it over use or abuse resulting in environmental damage.

The real problem is not the management but the priorities given to the economic considerations[xxi]. The focus of the development expert is on “better”, “more efficient”, and “sustainable” productive relations[xxii]. It is construed through the construction of “true value” of common property, otherwise, the ascription of a price on it[xxiii]. According to Beder (1994):

The tragedy of the commons is not that there are commons, but rather the freedom of the commons. The lack of legal sanctions combined with a value system that promotes the raising of individual economic interest to a primary decision-making principle is what destroys the commons combined with a value system that promotes the raising of individual economic interest to a primary decision-making principle is what destroys the commons[xxiv].

According to Neil carter:

Seen in this light, the primacy of “free market principles “is playing the central role for perpetuating the priority of economic goals that caused environmental degradation in the first place[xxv].

Neil Carter characterises weak sustainable development as “integrating capitalist growth with environmental concerns”[xxvi]. According to Vandana Shiva (1991), sustainability should be reshaped to fit nature’s logic rather than protecting the primacy of capital.[xxvii]This dichotomy of “economic growth” and “environmental protection” in the development debate has resorted the notion of sustainable development which gives an ideological cover or legitimisation for quantitative aspects i.e., economic growth and distracts the debates from the sphere of qualitative ones like “protection”[xxviii]. Through the legitimisation of this notion, environment could be considered as a commodity included in the economic system. The new debate is centred on how more value adding activities can be practiced through the better management of this commodity.

Social and Technological Options for Sustainability

The 1987s Brundtlandreportargued:“it is a terrible irony that as formal development reaches more deeply in to rain forests , and other isolated environments: It tends to destroy the only cultures that have proved able to thrive in these environments”[xxix].Apart from the technology, the diffusion of appropriate technologies also needed communities’ involvement at every stage of the diffusion. It needs minimal state intervention with more involvement and rights to the community in the process of diffusion of appropriate technologies. The international discourse emphasis’s the increasing efficiency of the local people in sustainable resource management. Participatory governance has been identified as the most important method to diffuse the newer technological options for the rural mass. It involves community participation in identification, implementation, monitoring and overall management of technologies. Many concepts ranging from decentralization to social capital has been emerged under the strategy of participatory governance in sustainable utilization of resources with appropriate technologies. The outcomes of this social and technological revolution were variable with special attention to two trends in particular, namely a drive for economic efficiency and the need for alternative methods of welfare[xxx].

The ‘scientifism’ with a ‘technocentric/technocratic’ approach was replaced by the important role of society in the diffusion process. In other words, it become important to include the “democratic participation” of citizens for the ‘sustainable utilisation’ of the resources with appropriate technologies and simple mechanisms that can be easily managed by the people. In fact, “democracy and sustainable development were two sides of the same coin”[xxxi]. Both the concepts conveyed the message of equality and justice to access to resources, democratic decision making and freedom of the individual. So the focus was shifted to how to organise or form the collectivity of the people at the grass root level. The result was a new spectrum of ‘democratic development’ comprising of the state, civil society, market and the citizens for the efficient governance of environmental resources with alternative technological options.

These reframed progressivisms for the development argues for minimal state intervention and enhanced freedom of the community and the individual in taking decisions. In the process of liberalisation, the discourses on rights and duties of the state and citizen also got a major shift. The delivery of basic needs which comes under the concept of “welfare state” became flawed under the national debts and structural adjustment and the ‘rights’ of the citizens began redefined as ‘duties’ within the “effective utilisation” and “sustainability” debate.

In the backdrop of this debate the discourses began turning to the effective sustainable utilisation of the resources and the focus has been shifted from ‘government ‘to the concept of ‘governance’. It strained for the ways to greater democratic governance of resources and the participation of citizens/community in meeting the basic needs attained prominence in the languages of development. Apart from this, participatory strategy for sustainable development calls for the organisation of local communities with institutional aspects in order to the efficient utilisation of social and human capital.In this context, thechallenges of sustainable development were focused on the production of newer knowledge or technology, which were environment friendly.The Concepts like appropriate technology and participatory governance emerged as the effective “tools” to involve the community for successful implementation of the projects.

The agenda 21 of the UN’s Rio Earth Summit stated that the efficiency of indigenous people's resource management systems should be increased by promoting the adaptation and dissemination of suitable technological innovations[xxxii].The term appropriate technology came into some prominence during the energy crisis in 1973and the environmental movement of the 1970s. Further, the rhetoric of appropriate technology reinforced emerging environmental concerns. The result was an outpouring of popular and scholarly writing on appropriate technology and institutional efforts to act upon those ideals. Appropriate Technology concepts have been discussed throughout this past century by notable leaders and scholars such as Gandhi and Julius Nyerere. However the main proponent of appropriate technology movement was noted British economist, E.F Schumacher[xxxiii].

At the social level the discourses has been shifting to decentralization of power to the grassroots. Diverse terminologies such as deliberative democracy, community participation , participatory governance etc came under this discourse. It ensures that people’s concern and wishes are fed in to the policy making process[xxxiv]. It can also be viewed as a new approach to governance that is conducive to collective action[xxxv]. It is a mechanism ultimately redefining the roles and redrawing the demarcating line between and within public and private spheres[xxxvi].The point is to dilute/compromise the tension between the state and civil society in the transference of duties and rights in the process of technology diffusion.Whatever may be the definitional entanglements it assumes the primary meaning of “good governance” which is supposed to be ‘transparent’, ‘accountable’ and ‘democratic’ to the local needs and local community. For international institutions and donor agencies it has the primary meaning of “efficient governance that has the ability to deliver the technology and services to the poor whether democratically or not.

Concluding remarks

This study explores the evolution of development and technology priorities in the context of Sustainable Development, tracing its origins from the post-world war Cold War era. It discusses the influence of the cold war on technology diffusion and development paths, and the impact of aid programs on shaping the path of development in recipient countries. Despite their good intentions, these technocratic programmes frequently led to unsatisfactory results, creating extremely isolated but reasonably prosperous communities and causing relative stagnation in the wider population. Concerns concerning traditional development tactics have been raised by the inability to generate jobs and the widening regional gaps; as a result, new perspectives on development and technology have entered the development discourse. In this setting, a greater concern regarding the detrimental social and environmental repercussions of the advent of contemporary technologies has surfaced in academia and politics alike. The development debate gradually shifted towards newer technological options, which coincided with the emerging environmentalism and sustainable development movement.Environmental concerns were raised in the Brundtland report along with the discussion of economic expansion. It was a groundbreaking development in the global discourse on sustainable development. The report's popularity has grown to such an extent that practically all international donor organisations, non-governmental organisations, and state policies now use it as their catchphrase in development interventions.In the backdrop of this debate the discourses began turning to the effective sustainable utilisation of the resources and the focus has been shifted from ‘government ‘to the concept of ‘governance’. It strained for the ways to greater democratic governance of resources and the participation of citizens/community in meeting the basic needs attained prominence in the languages of development. Apart from this, participatory strategy for sustainable development calls for the organisation of local communities with institutional aspects in order to the efficient utilisation of social and human capital.In this context, thechallenges of sustainable development were focused on the production of newer knowledge or technology, which were environment friendly.The Concepts like appropriate technology and participatory governance emerged as the effective “tools” to involve the community for successful implementation of the projects in the third world countries. So, the present study broadly explains , how the international discourses on sustainable development has altered the development interventions at the local space of the countries of periphery.

References

[i] . Seely , E, Bruce, (2003) . "Historical Patterns in the Scholarship of Technology Transfer," Comparative Technology Transfer and Society1.(1),pp.7-48 .

[ii]Ibid.

[iii]Rosen, G. (1985), Western Economists and Eastern Societies: Agents of Change in South Asia, 1950-1970, The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, See also, Rosenberg, N. (1970), “Economic Development And The Transfer Of Technology: Some Historical Perspectives”, TechnologyandCulture,11(3),pp. 550-575.

[iv]Thormann, P,(1979), “Proposal For A Program In A:ropriate Technology”, In A. Robinson (Ed.), Apropriate technologies for Third World development, St. Martin’s Press :New York,pp.280-299.

[v]Zaltman, G., & Duncan, R. (1977), Strategies for Planned Change ,Wiley: New York

[vi]Briscoe.J and de, Ferranti, D (1998), Water for Rural communities. Helping People to Help Themselves, World Bank: Washington.

[vii]Beder Sharon ( 1994), “Revolting Developments: The Politics of Sustainable Development”, Arena Magazine, June-July,p.37-39

[viii]Ibid

[ix] ibid

[x]UN(1992), “Agenda 21 - United Nations Sustainable Development”, (Available at: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf ‎on 20-10-2011)

[xi] Carter, N. (2007), The politics of the environment, , Cambridge University Press: Cambridge,p.197

[xii] UN report (1995), world summit for social development, ( Available at http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf166/aconf166-9.htm,Accessed on 12-6-2010)

[xiii] Ibid.

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv]Carter, N. (2007).op.cit.,p.197

[xvi] Ibid

[xvii] Reed David (1996), Sustainable Adjustment, the Environment, and Sustainable Development, Earthscan Publications Ltd: London,p.23

[xviii] D.J. Thampapillai (1991), Environmental Economics, Oxford University Press: Melbourne,p.5

[xix]Beder Sharon (1994), 'The Hidden Messages Within Sustainable Development', Social Alternatives 13(2), July, pp. 8-12.

[xx] D. James (1991), Economics, Environment and Sustainable Development, RAC Occasional Publication: Canberra p.4

[xxi]Sharon Beder (1994), op.cit.pp. 8-12

[xxii] Goldman Michael (1997), “Customs in common”: The Epistemic world of Commons Scholars”, Theory and society, 26(1),p.13.

[xxiii]Goldman Michael (1997), op.ci,p-13.

[xxiv]Sharon Beder (1994), op.cit.foot note no.72, p.10

[xxv]Carter, N. (2007),op.cit.p.212

[xxvi]Ibid,p.213

[xxvii] V. Shiva (1991), “Ecologically Sustainable: What it Really Means”, Third World Resurgence , (5),January,p. 9.

[xxviii] W.L. Hare (ed),(1990), “Ecologically Sustainable Development, Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace (Australia)”, The Wilderness Society, World Wide Fund for Nature – Australia.(Available at:http://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/STS300/sustain/meaning/mainarticle.html.Accessed on 19-4-2005.

[xxix]World Commission on Environment and Development. (The Brundtland Commission).(1987), Our Common Future,Oxford University Press :Oxford

[xxx]Bell, Marg and FranceysRichard ,(1995), “Improving Human Welfare Through A:ropriateTechnology:Governmentresponsibility,Citizen Duty or Customer Choice”, Social Science and Medicine,40(9) ,pp.1169-1179.

[xxxi] James Buturo, NGOs, “Democracy And Sustainable Development In Africa", ( Available at:http://www.un-ngls.org/orf/documents/publications.en/voices.africa/number5/vfa5.06.htm).

[xxxii] UNEP (year Not Available), “Recognising and Strengthening The Role Of Indigenous People And Their Communities”, (Available at:http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/default.asp?DocumentID=52&ArticleID=74&l=en. Accessed on 11-1-2013.)

[xxxiii]Schumacher, E.F (1973), Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If Mattered,Harper& Row ,New York

[xxxiv]Nanz, Patrizia&Caroline (2003), “A Deliberative-Democratic Mode of Governance? The cases of Employment and Pensions Changing European Societies”, paper presented in ESPanetconferenceonThe role for social policy, conducted during13.-15. November 2003, Poznan, Poland, ( Availableat:http://www.sfi.dk/graphics/ESPAnet/papers/delaporte.pdf, accessed on 2-03-2014)

[xxxv]Stoker, G. 1998. “Governance as Theory: Five Propositions.” International Social Science

Journal,50 (1), p.17-28. Also see, Provan, K. and H. B. Milward. 1995. "A Preliminary Theory of Inter-organizational Network Effectiveness." Administrative Science Quarterly, 40( 1),pp. 1 – 33. Also see Peters, B. G. and J. Pierre. 1998. “Governance Without Government? Rethinking Public Administration.”Journal of Publ

[xxxvi]Bekke, H., W. Kickert and J. Kooiman (1995); “Public Management and Governance.” In Kickert and F. A. van Vught, (eds). Public Policy and Administrative Sciences in the Netherlands,Harvester: London

Dr.Abhilash Babu, Director,School of Social Sciences,Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam , Kerala Email:abhilashbabu3700@mgu.ac.in abhilashbabu3700@mgu.ac.in

Sustainability and Global Welfare: Lessons from Adivasi People

R.Sarojini

Towards Sustainable Living

Sustainability is the way of living without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their needs. The path of sustainability is complex and it’s interconnected. Not only individuals, but a whole community, country and government should join hands in achieving it.

Humans have always accepted changes and adapted to it. During recent times the growing awareness about sustainable living and its importance is peaking. These changes are adopted and we humans have embraced various sustainable habits. We have reduced waste and started using recycling instead of improper disposal like landfills. The drive for Eco-friendly products has increased. We tend to choose recycled and eco friendly objects moving towards minimalist Lifestyle. Single-Use plastics are banned.

We as a community have joined hands in producing organic product, planting trees and terrace gardening. There are NGO's and campaigns promoting sustainable living. Such campaigns occasionally involve even policymakers to reach the public more easily.

Food Culture of Adivasi People

The meat cooked is enriched by nutrients and not of salt. And their favourite kind of food is honey. Also the common food habit that is found in tribal life is that they share their feast either hunted or caught, with other people. Everything belongs to everybody. The only food that is preserved are honey and meat.

They use utensils made out of wood or soil. They make basket made from coconut and palm leaves. Their food depends on the wild fruit, flowers vegetables that are available in the wood. These food items are brought in a huge basket especially by the women of the clan. Their diet rely on the resources available during the season. They use wild fruits, tubers from the woods to supplement their diet. They also depend on seasonal fruits like a berries, mangoes and jackfruits.

Passing traditional values to next generation ensures them the continuity of their cultural heritage and sustainable living.

Tribal Fashion

They decorate their houses, weave or make dresses or ornaments from things that they acquire from woods. They also have dyed clothes that have natural colours from nature. They have make garlands from seeds and beads and make crown like flower structures in contrasting colours to match their dresses.

Occupation of Tribal Communities

Most tribal living in India depend on hunting, fishing or gathering. But this doesn't happen for them to exclusively to satisfy their needs. They go without food until they are hungry. Their weapons are mainly made from hardwood found in woods.

Many adivasi communities practice Agriculture. A piece of land is selected for harvesting. It is cleared and dry leaves, bushes are burnt before rain. This fire burn the weeds and insects and the ashes are spread over the land. This fertilizers the land and also the seed is sown and the rain is left to do its work. This type of cultivation is called as jhum cultivation. The piece of land that is selected is near their dwelling place. That land is left to regenerate for years. And the people do not move from place to place for settling.

This agriculture practices such a shifting culture that allows land to regenerate. They also have understanding about the local ecosystem that allows them to cultivate crops according to the environment. Adivasi communities rely mainly on forest for food, medicine and other resources. They respect nature and often practice sustainable habits to keep the balance. In art and architecture people use local resources and with their traditional craft. They make minimalistic environment impact. Adivasi communities use minimal resources for their daily needs and this leads to very less or no waste.

Herding or grazing cattles is a very common practice of the tribal community. They get milk and other dairy products that help them in meeting their daily food need.

Barter system is also prevalent in the Adivasi community. They do not use the whole produce for their consumption. It is shared and needed things are exchange like clothes, salt, tea and tobacco. These group of people satisfy themselves with the local resources they get and they are not they are not greatly equipped. Also they hunt on animals that are plentily available. Also the tribes do not fish with nets and rather use their bows and arrows. They can spot fishes easily with their skills in fishing and can gather plenty of fishes and crabs.

Tribal Belief System

Their Gods are generally linked with nature and ancestors. They consider trees, mountains holy and they are worshipped. They offer significant carved or terracotta materials to their Gods and also offer food. Human figures of loved ones when the carved as memory. These kinds of objects are of high significance for them.

Traditional Medicine of the Tribals

Some of the adivasi people have mastered the knowledge of wild herbs. They treat people with various ailments. They are well-versed with Herbs and their medical properties. They make traditional medicines from herbs, roots and tree barks.

Festivals

During festive times, a special drink called Oppo or Mahuva are made. During wedding or festivals different shapes of eatables are made from rice flour mixed with herbs and plants to make them colourful and tasty. Different coloured dresses are made from multicolored thread. They make embroidery work in such dresses to make them even more beautiful.

The wedding or festival of a clan is a festival for all the neighbouring clans. Neighbouring clans are invited for the festival to enjoy the occasion and have special food. During such occasions, gifts like domestic animals such as wild ox, dogs, pigs, Hen and goats are given to other clan members or members of their own clan. They also given beads, seads, rice, garlands, clothes and even tasty food in a thankful way.

Arts and Crafts

Communities interest themselves in art forms like painting. Paints are derived from natural pigments of plants and minerals. Themes mainly include nature, God and everyday life. They practice in traditional craftmanship like pottery, handmade tools and textiles using the locally available materials.

Indigenous communities often use clay to make the various forms using hand. Some communities use traditional techniques like open fire or kiln. Designs like patterns, motifs and dots are included.

Basketry is a very common skill of the adivasi men and women. They craft basket from local resources like bamboo, reeds or grass. They are both made for daily and festive purpose.

Conclusion

Adivasi communities living the closest to the woods, rely on them for their livelihood. By understanding and respecting their unique culture, we can promote their culture, social justice and sustainable living they inhabit in those regions.

We humans should take the responsibility of making informed choices in sustainable living. Our choices must be prioritizing eco-friendly products that involve the well-being of our Planet Earth and also the future generation. Sustainable living is a holistic one and we should consider our daily life and make a mindset in making mindful choices for the future generation.

R.Sarojini, Research Scholar,Department of Hindi,The Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University),Gandhigram – 624302. Dindigul - Tamilnadu

Sustainable Living A Gandhian Perspective

Dr.R.Vetrickarthick

Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet,is either mad or an economist.” – Kennath Boulding

Introduction

Gandhian ideals were often looked upon as conservative and his very approach as anti-science& technology. On the contrary he emphasized that Science and Technology should harmonize with man and nature. Any technology that limits human potential is anti-human .S & T should be used to enhance human potential and not cripple man. This approach is embedded in his concept of Bread Labour. For the question of man or machine, man should be the first priority , and for man or nature, nature must be given first place. We are living in the era of Artificial intelligence, human and natural resources are being exploited like anything which we never witnessed before. This evident from the “Earth Overshoot” data .The human race is rapidly transforming from self-sufficient to parasitic and forgetting the fact that natural resources are finite. JC Kumarappa, a Gandhian Economist classified this type of economy – Killing own source of benefit as Parasitic Economy. For example, Big Corporate, whose sole objective is to make money, value machine power over human power. Instead, Gandhi wanted to build a conscience-centered universal system that capitalized on the collective humanenergy. Hence Nature vs Man vs Machine is a tussle between Conscientization vs. Corporatization perhaps the challenge between Human Existence vs. Extinction. Hence the need of the hour is, man has to re-examine his lifestyle and get a new perspective which should be based on Spiritual Ecological Consciousness.

Man Vs. Nature

Gus Speth, former Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yaler argued that World thinks Bio-diversity loss, Ecosystem collapse and Climate change are the top environmental problems but in reality, top environmental problems are Selfishness, Greed and Apathy (Sterling)which reflects in etiquettes of corporations. They are

1. Nature Environment as resource for humans

2. High Technological Progress and Solutions

3. Consumerism

4. Centralized Community

5. Dominant over Nature.

6. Materialistic Growth

7. Belief in ample resource reserves

8. Living without strong social purpose

9. Focus on Self and personal Gain.

Major challenge today is Anthropocentric vs. Nature centric. The survival of human race is based on the rapid transformation towards the Spiritual Ecological consciousness from world Dominant view. The need of the hour is spiritual and cultural transformation. (Sterling)How sooner the human realizes this fact, the sooner the damage can be mitigated. Otherwise, destruction is inevitable.

Gandhi said “Earth has enough for our needs but not enough for everyone’s greed. Basically, minimalist in Nature, he experimented “Need based Community Living” in his ashrams. The spirit behind this concept was John Ruskin’s unto this last. Gandhi termed this concept as “Sarvodaya” – Welfare of all or universal upliftment which is an appeal to the life based on nature .His Spiritual Ecological Consciousness comprehends following etiquettes.

1. Laws of nature are primary.

2. Earth resources are finite.

3. Elegantly simple materials are needed.

4. Myth of Technology “Progress ‟is flawed.

5. Work for common good.(Sarvodaya)

6. Stewardship for creation.

7. Attention to local and global needs.

8. Treat Earth as living.

9. Socially Purposeful life.

Man vs. Machine

Gandhi did not accept any kind of machinery that blunts human potential. He quoted that “Machinery is the chief symbol of modern civilization; it presents great sin”. He predicted that Machine age is aims to convert men to Machines. In the process, the human race is losing its identity. In Sarvodaya society, everyone should toil together to earn thefood.Themen,whodonotwork,eatstolenfood.HevaluedaLawyer’sProfessionasequal to a Barbour’s Profession as both are having the same rights to earn their food from the livelihood. According to him, the profession of "Tiller of the soil” and the handicrafts man are worth living. It means the value of Physical Labor is higher than the Intellectual Labor. Gandhi felt that modernized machines are crippling man.

For Instance, Gandhi advocated on cloth made by using Spinning wheel (Charkha rather than cloth made by Manchester textile mills. Even he used Charkha as a tool for social revolution. Millions of Indians followed his path and boycotted foreign cloths. The swadeshi spirit fired in the mind of Indians and triggered Indian Independence. Following table illustrates the outcomes of machine made and traditional manmade

S.no

The outcome of Machine Made

Outcome of traditional Manmade

Mass Production

Production by Masses

Forces unemployment

Creates Employment

Welfare of few

Welfare of all

Encourages Luxurious life

Need based Life

Profit is the Supreme Consideration

Man is the supreme consideration

High Standard of Living

Better Quality of Life

Encourages Competitiveness

Encourages Cooperation and Co-existence

Inflation

Equitable Distribution of Wealth

Maximal utilization of Natural Resources

Minimal utilization of Natural Resources

Table 1: Machine Made vs Man Made

When we buy a product, we determine the value from its price. But actually, methods of evaluating consumer goods in Gandhian view are

1. Does it seem to be Luxurious for simple life?

2. Does it affect the employment opportunities of People?

3. Does it consume more of non-renewable resources?

4. Do the waste materials of main production affect the environment?

5. Does it pave the way to exploitation, in-equality, domination, war and competition?

If the answer is yes, we should not purchase that good.

Differentiate Standard of Living and the Quality of Life

One has to realize the difference between standard of living and Quality of Life. In the world of science and technology luxury living and materialistic possessions are the primary objectives and inner peace and happiness are the secondary considerations. The Country’s Development is measured by its Gross Domestic Product. The standard of living is derived from per capita GDP, determined by dividing GDP by the number of people living in the country. In general, the increase in the GDP results in the growth of Standard of living but decline in Quality of life. But the quality of life is determined by the following Indicators such as.

1. Global Happiness Index

2. Global Peace Index

TheseindexesreflecttheneedofUniversalHealthCare,PeaceandValueEducation,NaturalandLivingEnvironment,overallExperienceofLifeandSocialinteractionsetc. Gandhi emphasizes four etiquettes necessary for quality of life. They are

1. Obedience to the law of Nature.

2. Simple living and High thinking.

3. Means justifies the end.

4. Claiming rights by doing duties.

Obedience to the law of Nature:

Rather than being an Environmentalist, Gandhi was more obedient in following thelawsofnature.Headoptednonviolentlifestyleintunewithnaturewithoutharmingothers.Hefollowedtheminimalutilizationtheoryandvoluntarilyadoptedpoverty.Hiscoreprincipleofnon-stealingisbasedonZeroExploitationofHumanresourcesandEarthResources. He observed that “Man had no power to create life; therefore, he has no right to destroy life”. We should more compassionate to the other lower beings. Gandhi strongly opposed the Western view of man's conquest of nature. He warned against man's dominance over nature leads to his alienation from the order of nature. He also warned against using nature for unlimited mass production and consumption purposes. Gandhi was a man of Principled Nonviolence. His ashrams were built on discarded lands. Even poisonous snakes in the Ashram were trapped by wooden scissors and snake cages and later leave them in the forest. His policy is profound. He claimed that

The world is full of Himsa and Nature does appear to be 'red in tooth and claw'. But if we bear in mind that man is higher than the brute, then is man superior to that nature. If man has a divine mission to fulfil, a mission that becomes him, it is that of Ahimsa (Gandhi, The law of Human Species)

Simple Living and High Thinking

A book Gandhi read on a train journey in 1904 changed the course of his life. John Ruskin's unto this Last” taught Gandhi from individual life to Community life. The Phoenix settlement is the first Ashram launched by Gandhi in 1904 for his experiments of Community life. Here Gandhi started his journey of transforming from a lawyer to a Peasant with a passion for liberation, nonviolence and Spirituality. Since then, Gandhi started four Ashrams in Durban Johannesburg, Ahmedabad and Sevagram where he did the experiments on

i. Communal living

ii. Non-Possession

iii. Interfaith Harmony

iv. Simplicity

v. Environmental Protection

vi. Conservation

vii. Manual Labour

viii. Social and Economic Justice

ix. Nonviolent Action

Throughtheseexperiments,Gandhirealizedthat“OurhighestMoralauthorityistoachievethegreatestcommon good”: In the process, he

Ø invested in the growth and well being of others

Ø found the greatest Joy in causes greater than himself

Ø model the character others to emulate

Ø Assessed his purity of Intention.

Means Justifies the Ends

Gandhi believed that the road to man of success is man of values. He observed that “the creator has given us control over means, none over the end”. n reality, all the problems arise from the impurity intent of human beings. Impure means result in an impure end. As mentioned earlier, if we obey to the law of nature, earth will provide all the necessities for human being to live happily and harmoniously. If we try to dominant over the nature, like the glow of a lamp that goes out, humanity is consumed by sensuality.

Real problem is not science and Technology; the problem is Selfishness, apathy and Greedy. Science should be based on humanity and Spirituality. In other words, means to Science and Technology is Spirituality and Humanity. Likely

ü Means to Wealth is Physical Work or Bodily Labour

ü Means to Business is ethics and Morality.

ü Means to Pleasure is Conscience and Self-control.

ü Means to Politics is Principle.

ü Means to Religion is Spirituality.

ü Means to Education is True Knowledge and Character

ü Means to Success is Values.

This method may be appeared to be long perhaps too long, but Gandhi convinced that is the shortest of all. The following lines of Gandhi indicate that “Means and Ends are inseparable components like a Seed and Tree”. “The taste of the fruit depends on the quality of the seed”.(Gandhi, Ends and Means)

“The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree, and there is just the same inviolable connection between there means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree”. (Gandhi, Hind Swaraj)

Rights and Duties

Gandhi proclaimed that “Real rights are the result of the performance of the Duty”. Most of the occasion, we focus on the rights and forget our duties. This egoistic nature leads to dominance, competitiveness and Exploitation. Out of his Experience Gandhi wrote that,

“As a young man I began life by seeking to assert my rights and I soon discovered I had none - not even over my wife. So "I began by discovering and performing my duty by my wife, my children, my friends, companions and society arid I find today that I have greater rights perhaps than any living man I know”. (Prabhu)

The difference between the right oriented and Duty oriented is the transformation from Enlightened Self Interest into ethical and Moral Principles of Self Realization. Here theselfisselfinothersandthusself-realizationisinterpretedasnecessarilyimplyingtherealizationofotherselves and the good of society.(Sharma)

Sno

Right

Duty

Ego

Society’s Expectation of the Individual

Self-Assertive Claim

Individuals recognition of social expectation

Social Recognition

Moral obligation and Legal duty

Table 2: Right vs Duty

Gandhi viewed the path of Duty presupposes two-fold obligations.

i. Obligation towards oneself

ii. Obligation towards the community

While rights start with self-assertion, duty starts with the idea of Self Discipline –Discipline even to the extent of total subordination of self to the higher consciousness.(Sharma)

Conclusion:

This gives us the choice between Man and the Nature, Machine and Men, Quality of Life and Standard of living. The corporate deliberately tune us towards their personal agenda and make our choice towards less conscience towards universal welfare. The outcome of corporatization is selfishness, greed and Apathy. These results in exploitation, in-equality, domination ,and war and competition. As this research indicates Gandhian approach of SpiritualEcologicalconsciousnesswilldriveustowardscoexistence,mutuality,universalityandequitabledistributionofwealth. Choice is ours…...

Bibliography

1. Gandhi,MK. (1969).“Ends and Means.” Gandhi,MK .Selected Works of MK Gandhi : Vol5 Voice of Truth. Ahemedabad: NavajivanTrust.

2. Gandhi,MK. (1952).HindSwaraj. Ahemedabad:Navajivan publications.

3. Gandhi, MK. (1960). “The Gospel of Bread Labour.”. RK Prabhu & UR Rao. Mind of Mahatma Gandhi.Ahemedabad: Navajivan

4. Gandhi, MK.(1959). “The law of Human Species.” Gandhi, MK. The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol5:Voiceof Truth.Ahemadabad: Navajivan

5. Haynie, Devon.(11September2020) “Report: American Quality of Life Declines Over Past Decade.” U.S.News.

6. Kumarappa,JC.(1945).Economy of Permanence. Varanasi: Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan.

7. Prabhu,RK.(1954).This was Bapu. Ahemedabad:Navajivan

8. “Protein Week(2021).” Times of India23July2021.

9. Sharma,GN(1980).“Gandhi's Concept of Duty.”The IndianJournalofPoliticalScience:214-231.

10. Sterling, Gregory E. (2019)“Crucified Creation: A Green Faith Rising .”Spring.

11. Willige,Andrea. (2022)“Climate Change.” World Economic Forum (Jun142022).

Acknowledgment :This is revised version of a paper entitled Gandhi and Law of Nature presented in 1st International Conference on Harmony and Reconciliation (ICHR), Sri lanka

Dr.R.Vetrickarthick is attached to Department of Gandhian Thought and Peace Science The Gandhigram Rural Institute – DTBU Gandhigram – 624302. Tamil Nadu, India

Email:vetrickarthickr@gmail.com,

Envisioning a Sustainable Future

D John Chelladurai

Introduction:

This article attempts to find out the root of the challenges we face and the sustainable response we are to find.

While we have innumerable scientific and material achievements to cherish as an individual, the progress of civilization has brought us to a defining crossroad, so much so that saner people began to wonder if all these accomplishments came in vain.

We find in the modern living, social human steadily slip into individual cocoon and tends to turn economy or politics self-centric or individual centric. From cultural being individual steadily turns into normative and dogmatic being, social beings are morphed into institutional and political beings. Social ills like gender disparity, discrimination of marginal people, continue to remain unabated. Poverty and unemployment remain rooted in society; the rich and poor, west and east continue to remain as a cleft in the face of humanity. Globally 800 million people go to bed hungry every night[i] even while the world boasts of producing food in surplus. This is an irony when 30 per cent of the food that comes to the plate never gets eaten.[ii]

The race for riches and the craze for consumerism subdue the essential symbiosis of life on earth. Climatic change with its pollution and depletion threatens the very existence. Deforestation and desertification are rapidly expanding (9.2 per cent in the last 35 years)[iii]; the size of rainforest is shrinking. Amazon forest alone lost 7900 Sq Km, five times the size of Delhi, in a single year between August 2017 and July 2018.[iv] NASA says, Mother ‘earth is in fever’[v], and the temperature is alarmingly on the rise; consequently her children, the species get extinct in the order of a dozen every day.[vi]

While on a global walk, individual forgets to be global in perspective resulting in cultural clashes, and such terror expressions as ‘9/11’ October 07 (2023 Hamas attack and the following invasion by Israeli troups into Gaza Strip) the recent January 03, (ISIS suicide attack on Iran). In our craving for the best in the world, we appear to pursue a perilous path.

The reason is conspicuous; unlimited growth, in all dimensions. We do everything beyond mother earth’s carrying capacity. World debt day / overshoot day suggests that we humanity, finish off our annual ration (provided by nature) by the first 210 days every year,[vii] and then snatch away the food, for the remaining days, from the table of our fellow brethren called plants, birds and animals.

Climate Crisis:

IPCC Chairperson Jim Skea spoke at COP28, Dubaisaying that human activity has led to changes to Earth’s climate of a magnitude unprecedented over centuries, some of them irreversible… The UNEP Gap Report released a few days ago shows that we are headed towards global warming of 3 degrees Celsius if we carry on with current policies. And let us not forget gaps in terms of adaptation and financing.

As the Chair of the IPCC, I can reassure you that the scientific community is poised, using the resources available to it, to support the outcomes of COP 28 in shaping climate action based on science. But let us recall, science by itself is no substitute for action.

We try to contain the global warming by 1.5 degree Celsius, and within 2 degree Celsius by 2100. Whereas, we reasonably apprehend that we may break the sealing to peak at anywhere between 3.3 and 5.4 degree Celsius.Artic is already warmed by 2.0 degree Celsius. We have lost 28 trillion tons of polar ice in less than 30 years.[viii][ix]

Health Crisis:

According to a Lancet study, 101 million people in India are living with diabetes. Another study states that the prevalence of diabetes in India stands at 11.4%, while 35.5% of Indians suffer from hypertension, additionally abdominal obesity stands at 40% across the population and female abdominal obesity is 50%.[x][xi]

Economic Crisis:

A report of the UNDP released in July 11, 2023 says, 1.1 Billion remain poor.[xii] It further says, 25 Countries halved multidimensional poverty within 15 years. However the poverty reduction claims are more statistical than actual. The ground reality is that the gap is ever widening. For example, in India it is considered that a person 1,286 rupees per month in urban areas and 1,059.42 rupees per month in rural areas, is not poor. It amounts to less than Rs.43 and 36 per day in urban and rural areas respectively. In an inflated state of economy[xiii] this amount promises pretty little.

Our poverty reduction method is essentially to increase the GDP manifold so that the trickling down of fringe benefits would make the bottom peopleenjoy a figurative increase of incomeabove poverty line that was set years ago.

For instance, a housemaid to come above poverty (UN index of USD 2.25 per day an income of 2.00 lac per annum), the employer must have an income of Rs. 1.5 million, even then it is doubtful the employer would pay a salary of Rs. 200,000 per annum (Rs. 16,666/month).

Politics: Right wing propensity sway across the globe. There is a general apprehension that we are all losing our ground, and we should cling to our ‘nativity’. Across much of the world, voters are turning to populists who are intensely distrustful of the institutions on which liberal democracy is built.[xiv]

Impact analysis:

The current damage to the sustainability of life on earth is chiefly attributed to the fossil fuel based development. The manner of industrialization is condemned.Our challenge is that our life is deeply rooted in industrialized development. Market based consumerist life that has a desire to consume without end.

However we must be naïve to believe that it is the root cause of the problem. The cause is that we have long been believing that humans are the masters of this earth and the earth is our common property, for us to enjoy, exploit.

Even in the era of climate crisis, we continued to believe that by altering the manner in which we industrialize we can save the planet. By converting the fuels into green energy.

Our problem of sustainability is not what color our energy is but how much we consume. In a limited earth our disproportionate consumption amounts to snatching away the food of the other beings (flora and fauna).

‘If we adopt a industrialization based lifestyle we will eat away the vitals of earth like locust.’ M K Gandhi

IPCC Chairperson, Jim Skea, at the COP28, Dubai, UAE, confessed that, science by itself is no substitute for action.

Even the noblest of the climate justice campaigners believe, that we can solve the problem by owning the earth collectively. By that they mean, we need to collectively take care of the earth.

Take for example, the GLOBAL CHOICES, an international campaign group for climate security. It says, “The High Seas are areas beyond national jurisdiction and in essence belong to all of us and also to the incredible biodiversity and many creatures that call it home. It includes the frozen Ocean Commons of the North Pole.[xv]

Does the Ocean belong to all of us? Yes in praxis and a no in principle . Human who needs 2300 Kilocalorie doesn’t need the entire ocean, so to say, the entire landscape to lead a life. Gandhi’s view of swadeshi life, calls for a contented life within a zone that is as far as the individual can cover by foot. (read his message at YMCA, Madras)

Gandhi’s Response:

Gandhi wrote a seminal commentary ‘Hind Swaraj, Indian Home Rule’. He argues in it, “Ideally I would rule out all machinery, even as I would reject this vey body, which is not helpful to salvation, and seek the absolute liberation of the soul. From that point of view I would reject all machinery, but machines will remain because, like the body, they are inevitable.[xvi]

The Prophet of nonviolence, Mahatma Gandhi proposes a comprehensive sustainable lifestyle. In his search for Truth, he explored the reality of life of humans in all its facets: socio, economic, political, religious, bio and ecologically, and proposed a life governed by the principles of Swaraj, Swadeshi and Sarvodaya, to make it the most sustainable life on earth. The society he visualized was a decentralized, self sustaining ‘gram rajya’. . It is a life of “satya-grahi’ one who life in alliance with truth.

While Gandhi was convinced of a satyagrahic life style and striving to live that life himself through his ashrams, he was not in a delusion about its practicality. He said that they are ideal visualization, for which humanity would take time to mature.

The uniqueness of Gandhi was his pragmatism. He did not let his idealism bog him down. He spoke of what could be practically done to get out of this mess and he did put in to action. He was realistic in his approach which earned him the epithet ‘Pragmatic idealist’.

Some of the pragmatic concepts Gandhi proposed were revolutionary both in their veracity and insight. They were sustainable in effect and optimized in their approach. Optimization means, an act of changing an existing process appropriately in order to increase the occurrence of favorable outcomes and decrease the occurrence of undesirable outcomes.[xvii]

Optimization:

His pursuit, actually, represented an optimized approach to life. It means, constantly retuning one’s perspective over the various factors that codetermine the life and its relationships, and the systems that govern the relationship, in a manner that makes transactional relationship reciprocally sustainable. It means, doing everything in an optimum[xviii] manner, in a way that is neither-less-nor-more.

One can see this optimum principle codetermining all his approaches to life, be it personal or national, physical or spiritual. Principles such as swadeshi, khadi and village industries, village republic (gram rajya), decentralized / concentric circular social order are some of the concepts essentially carrying Gandhi’s idea of optimization.

For instance, Gandhi proposed technology be pro-human and pro-nature (or appropriate, as EF Schumacher termed it later.). It can neither be too rudiment to be of any use, nor be monstrous to the point of overpowering the very user. He cited sewing machine as one such appropriate machine. It liberates the individual from the toils of hand stitching, while does not lead to surplus production to the point of creating unemployment; it consumes no electricity and pollutes nothing.

Economic Optimization:

Employment is a quantifiable resource within an economy. Mass production allows a few to usurp more than the average share of the global production opportunity, leaving a large section of the masses to be contended with the crumbs, far less than average, creating huge ‘opportunity gap’ called unemployment. He proposed decentralized village industries in place of global manufacturing conglomerates, in order to optimize the employment availability within the given production possibility (demand). He proposed an economy that J C Kumarappa term as ‘economy of permanence’. Bread labour, ie., physically laboring to earn livelihood, on land with appropriate tool is a life worth living, Gandhi echoed the idea of Ruskin. It renders justice to individual economy and ecology at the same time, sustainably.

Poverty and wealth are two sides of the same coin. The uniqueness of Gandhi’s optimized approach was that while working on the removal of poverty (poor must gear up - antyodaya) he was equally insisting upon ‘voluntary poverty’ among those having surplus (the rich must gear down). The structural arrangement Gandhi proposed for voluntary poverty was ‘Trusteeship’. He proposed to Jamnalal Bajaj, a rich Indian businessman and an associate of Gandhi, that he ‘be the trustee of his wealth and put it to the use of the poor millions.’

Taking clue from Gandhi’s nonviolent appropriate economic ideas, the British economist E F Schumacher wrote “Small is Beautiful: A study of Economics as if People Mattered”. And, The Club of Rome, an association of Nobel laureates, brought out the report ‘Limits to Growth’ out of the study based on ‘computer simulation of exponential economic and population growth with finite resources’. They all endorsed what Gandhi said about self-restrained appropriate living, through optimization.

‘Ecological Debt Day’ is a day that marks the point in each calendar year where human consumption of natural resources exceeds the earth’s ability to replenish those resources that year. At a sustainable rate of consumption, Ecological Debt Day would fall at the end of each calendar year. As of now, humans devour in 210 days the earth’s provisions that are meant for 365 days[xix]. In this context what Gandhi said sounds more prophetic: ‘there is enough for every human’s need but not everyone’s greed’; ‘consuming more than what we actually require amounts to stealing’, a violence against nature. May be ‘fulfillment of needs’ and not the ‘pursuit of greed’, which is essentially an optimized consumer behavior, would be the way to delay the ‘Ecological debt day’ by few notches.

Appropriate technology:

As Gandhi maintained that ‘life’ was the reference point, he insisted that tools and instruments have to have ‘upholding life’ as their central purpose. A tool cannot be accepted merely because it is sophisticated. It has to be as efficient as the individual life necessitates and only as effective as the law of nature permits. In this sense Gandhi had both lower and upper limits for every means and method, tool and technology, to ensure that they were in harmony with all the other factors at play.

Economics as an art of material transaction is intrinsically bound to the welfare of the people concerned. No instrument, however efficient and sophisticated, could be allowed if it did not hold ‘the welfare of all’ as its central purpose. Gandhi said, ‘What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such.’^{^[xx]} ‘The craze is for what they call labour-saving machinery. Men go on “saving labour” till thousands are without work and thrown out on the open streets to die of starvation.’^{^[xxi]} The Charkha is one of the best examples of appropriate technology in Gandhi’s time; it has now been improvised and today we have Amber Charkha with eight spindles, and solar driven Amber Charkha with sixteen spindles. These charkas employs individuals to earn sufficiently, and doe not allow one to earn more than what is sufficient.

Similarly, governance structure must be strong enough to govern, and small enough (for the last person) to access. Gandhi proposed the concept of decentralized political order. Gramrajya or panchayat rajya(village republic) and its concentric circular relationship with other systems is what Gandhi believed, would deliver best possible justice to people. These are essentially an optimized political approach to life.

Society must be in right size enough for a symbiotic life; no more no less.

Social Optimization:

The concept of village republic (gram rajya) Gandhi proposed was an optimized social order. Individual requires social association (cooperation and mutual aid). A healthy society would be one in which individual can connect personally with fellow beings. However, individual has serious limitation to the extent one can stretch out socially and geographically. In other words, a society cannot expand endlessly without making its members largely anonymous. Society, according to Gandhi, should not expand beyond individuals’ ability to comprehend it and to relate personally with rest of the members and their functions. His visualization of a social order akin to Oceanic Circle, with individual at the centre, encircled by family, village, district, state, nation and the world one after the other, carries the spirit of optimization. In the inner circles, ie., family and village, it is self-rule in the personal sense, and in the circles beyond, the relationship is more representative than personal.

Optimization and diversity:

Global living has brought diverse humans to co-exist in close quarters. People of different religions, ethnic and cultural orientation have come to live in every locality. Information technology has removed the geo distance anyway. Between individual’s religio-cultural affiliation and the social diversity, we need to adopt a mean-point of behavior to be compatible. One of Gandhi’s eleven vows ‘equal reverence for all religions’ (Sarva Dharma sambhava) explains this essential virtue especially for global humans. It is, appreciating plurality while being rooted to one’s faith.

When E Stanley Jones an American Methodist priest asked Gandhi, “Christ says ‘love thy neighbour’, what better message of nonviolence could you give?” Gandhi responded saying ‘I have no enemy’. The ‘wrong and wrong doer are not one’. I am against the ‘wrong’, the wrong doer is my person, he stated. More than loving one’s enemy, overcoming the habit of seeing an ‘enemy’ in others, is important.

In the spectrum of human behavior violence and nonviolence constitute two ends; absolute violence being one extreme and puritan nonviolence being the other. Though a proponent of nonviolence, Gandhi did not go for the extreme expression, but stuck to what are practical. Thus, he was reconciled to certain inevitable commission of violence, such as ‘driving away animals that spoils cultivation’. That is an optimized nonviolence.

Gandhi employed his optimum approach to health and sanitation too. Today, as World Health Organization has declared, ‘obesity’ is a global epidemic and a source of all life style hazards. Gandhi argues, “A man with extraordinary physic is not necessarily healthy. He has merely developed his musculature, possibly at the expense of something else” Gandhi says. In his book Key to health he proposed a balanced life of just sufficiently nutritious food, active physical life, good sleep and healthy thinking. The eco-friendly toilet he designed, called ‘wardha latrine’ was one of the best optimized response to sanitation, as it was serving the domestic need while being sustainable both economically and ecologically.

Decentralization:

In a society consisting of ordinary humans of moderate capabilities, decentralisation is the way to optimize economics. Decentralization means localization or customization, and not dissipation or disintegration. It aims at moving systems and structures towards appropriate or optimum size, no less and no more, so that they operate gainfully for the people concerned.

Centralization amounts to concentration. It leaves power in the hands of a few to wield at the expense of many. It is against the laws of nature and is essentially a defiant practice. Gandhi proposed decentralisation of economic and political arrangements. Talking about governance, he quoted Thoreau: ‘. . . that government is best which governs least’.^{^[xxii]}

Decentralisation, E.F. Schumacher wrote, is ‘to evolve a more democratic and dignified system of industrial administration, a more humane employment of machinery, and a more intelligent utilization of the fruits of human ingenuity and effort’.^{^[xxiii]}

Large industries, Gandhi held, are a means for a few to monopolize employment opportunities. Instead, he proposed an economic conduct based on village and cottage industries supported by ‘appropriate technologies’^{^[xxiv]} as the best economic order. Decentralization of production opportunities is a precondition for ‘non-exploitative’ living.^{^[xxv]} Decentralization makes people the centre of power, and they become the operators of their own economy. In such an economic system, there will be an organic relationship between production, distribution and consumption,^{^[xxvi]} in a manner that is just and equitable.

Such an economic order entails a fairly uniform distribution of knowledge, awareness and sense of responsibility. Creating such a discipline in society too is part of decentralisation. Hence Gandhi introduced Nayee Talim—'new education’—which is all about decentralized and appropriate pedagogy for life skills-centric knowledge distribution. Knowledge travels from a more concentrated place to a less concentrated place. This pedagogy is an art of inclusivity yet mutual enrichment of life within a community—just essential learning and no more no less, through appropriate methods (learning by doing), from within an accessible source (community), and towards a no-less-no-more life.^{^[xxvii]}

‘If India is to evolve along non-violent lines; it will have to decentralize many things. Centralization cannot be sustained and defended without adequate force,’^{^[xxviii]} Gandhi asserted.

Characteristics of a Sustainable practice:

Sustainability is characterized by four factors. They are: pro-individual, pro-community, pro-life and pro-Creation

1. Functional inclusiveness and adaptability: A system must be accessible down to the last member of the society in which it operates; there should be a belief that every member is a stakeholder of the system.^{^[xxix]}

Pro-human: Besides being pro-individuals, a system has to be pro-human. This means the system (the economy, for instance) would work for the good of individual without losing sight of the good of all. It functions in compliance with the principle of welfare for all, including those outside the scope of the system.^{^[xxx]}

It means not negating the interests of any, directly or indirectly. For example, ‘trade balance’. If one community is procuring of raw materials (cotton, for instance, as the British did) from another community for its own growth without sharing the economic benefits—say, employment—that those resources generate with the producer community, it amounts to unethical conduct. Such procurement, in effect, is exploitation or misappropriation, on account of the unilateral gains it leads to (or the loss it imposes on the other).^{^[xxxi]} Gandhi’s campaign for Swadeshi (local production for local consumption, such as Khadi and gramodyog products) came as a response to this unethical element in the global economy at that point of time.

Universal compatibility: A system cannot serve some among humanity at the expense of other lives. That would be incompatible with the idea of universal good for all. Gandhi wrote, ‘I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but with all life, even with the crawling things upon earth, because we claim descent from the same God, and that being so, all life in whatever form it appears must be essentially one.’^{^[xxxii]}
Nature-friendly: To be sustainable, a system has to work in tandem with the laws of nature. Living in compliance with the law of nature is the very basis of our life. Gandhi said: ‘I suggest that we are thieves in a way. If I take anything that I do not need for my own immediate use and keep it, I thieve it from somebody else. It is the fundamental law, without exception, that nature produces enough for our wants from day to day; and if only everybody took enough for himself and nothing more, there would be no pauperism in this world, and there would be no human dying of starvation.’^{^[xxxiii]}

Conclusion:

As Robert Swan said, “ The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” The present climate crisis suggests that we do not have time to wait and think. It is time for us to act. Gandhi gives us sufficiently tested concepts of sustainable living, along with workable systemic structural designs. They are essentially nonviolent models. Nonviolence means non-violation of the fundamentals of life. Sustainability is brought about by a process we know as ‘ Optimization’ Optimization is understood as an act of making apt / appropriate use of an opportunity or a situation or resources. In the layman’s language , optimization can be stated as ‘no-more-no-less’ state of affair. Nature sustains life following the principle of optimization. In our physical body we find it in the form of homeostasis. Everything about the body is maintained at their optimum level.

Gandhi did not use the term ‘sustainable’ ‘optimum’ or ‘appropriate’. Nevertheless, in all his reformation endeavours, one can see that he attempted to optimize systems and structures so that the outcomes would be equitable, just and sustainable, amounting to the welfare of all. His C oncepts of Gramrajya, Swadeshi, Khadi, etc., embody these qualities. The idea of optimization helps us understand what is sustainable and what is not.

What the Prophet of nonviolence, Mahatma Gandhi proposed was a comprehensive sustainable lifestyle. In his search for Truth, he explored the reality of life of humans in all its facets: socio, economic, political, religious, bio and ecologically, and proposed a life governed by the principles of Swaraj, Swadeshi and Sarvodaya, to make it the most sustainable life on earth. The society he visualized was a decentralized, self sustaining ‘gram rajya’. . It is a life of “satya-grahi’ one who life in alliance with truth.

The principles and concepts he proposed were optimized, appropriate, and naturalized. His practices had strong features of what we not term as sustainability. His sustainability is characterized by four key factors. They are: being pro-individual, pro-community, pro-life and pro-Creation.

References

[i] Matthew Tempest, Global Health Index, EURACTIV, https://www.euractiv.com/section/development-policy/ ( accessed on Dec, 15, 2022)

[ii] National Geographic Channel, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/ugly-food-story-build

[iii] Desertification is land degradation. Drylands (arid, semi-arid, humid areas) currently cover about 46.2% (±0.8%) of the global land area and are home to 3 billion people. Desertification hotspots, as identified by a decline in vegetation productivity between the 1980s and 2000s, extended to about 9.2% of drylands. https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-3/( accessed on Dec, 15, 2022)

[iv]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46327634( accessed on Dec, 15, 2022)

[v] Earth's average temperature has risen over 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century. It is projected to rise an additional 3 F and 10 F over the next 100 years. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/video/nasas-Earth-minute-Earth-has-a-fever/( accessed on Dec, 15, 2022)

[vi] Some studies say, that the rate of extinction may vary between 12 – 50 a day.

[vii]https://www.overshootday.org/( accessed on Dec, 14, 2022)

[viii] https://www.globalchoices.org/?gclid=CjwKCAiA-vOsBhAAEiwAIWR0Tdd1bDbK-lunyacfNkoYSbJPCMu1qp2QpskDZsyh6Kk3ZFbZ9V1SMBoCHWQQAvD_BwE

[ix]The IPCC launched its best known scenarios, the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) in its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014. The RCPs represent scenarios in which different concentrations of greenhouse gases are present in the atmosphere. The IPCC scenarios have evolved over time to reflect changes in the global economy and human activity, which in turn determine the amounts and types of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

The IPCC scenarios launched with AR5 range from a hypothetical future (known as RCP 2.6) in which aggressive mitigation strategies are implemented, keeping global warming within 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100, to one in which greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise unabated, leading to a temperature rise of between 3.3C and 5.4C. Scientists caution that the latter scenario, known as RCP 8.5, does not capture a ‘business as usual’ emissions trajectory, as it is often claimed, but describes a future in which humans burn more fossil fuels than they currently do, instead of reducing their use. Three additional RCP scenarios have since been developed, including one – RCP 1.9 – which represents a situation compatible with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming within 1.5C.

[x] https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/31-million-more-indians-became-diabetic-between-2019-2021-says-study/article66949970.ece

[xi] WHO report says

In India, there are estimated 77 million people above the age of 18 years are suffering from diabetes (type 2) and nearly 25 million are prediabetics (at a higher risk of developing diabetes in near future). More than 50% of people are unaware of their diabetic status which leads to health complications if not detected and treated early. Adults with diabetes have a two- to three-fold increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. Combined with reduced blood flow, neuropathy (nerve damage) in the feet increases the chance of foot ulcers, infection, and the eventual need for limb amputation. Diabetic retinopathy is an important cause of blindness and occurs as a result of long-term accumulated damage to the small blood vessels in the retina. Diabetes is among the leading causes of kidney failure.

https://www.who.int/india/health-topics/mobile-technology-for-preventing-ncds

[xii]https://reliefweb.int/organization/undp

[xiii] Indian average inflation in the last 10 years is 5.5% which is higher than the Asia-Pacific regional average of 2.2 %. In 2022 it is 6.7% (https://www.focus-economics.com/country-indicator/india/inflation/)

[xiv]https://thewire.in/world/the-right-wing-is-on-the-rise-globally

[xv] https://www.globalchoices.org/

[xvi] M K Gandhi, Young India, 20-11-1924, p. 386

[xvii]https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/optimization.asp

[xviii] The principles of ‘Optimum’ explains how life is determined by the laws of homeostasis: the requirements of the body, be it energy, minerals, vitamins, trace elements or water, has to be strictly at a particular level, no more no less. Arriving at that point of optimum enables life, be it at the microcosm or macrocosm, be it biological or socio economic, political.

[xix] World debt day / overshoot day suggests that we humanity, finish off our annual ration (provided by nature) by the first 210 days every year, and then snatch away the food, for the remaining days, from the table of our fellow brethren called plants, birds and animals. https://www.overshootday.org/( accessed on Dec, 14, 2022)

[xx]Dinodia; Source: https://www.livemint.com/Home-Page/hzymip2hYw1AVkW34qZ2VJ/A-century-of-Gandhian-economics.htm, mettacentre

[xxi] Idem

[xxii] The phrase actually belonged to John O’Sullivan, who coined it as the motto of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, which he founded in 1837.

[xxiii] E.F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, Paperback Edition, SBN 06-080352-5, 1975, p. 261.

[xxiv] A technology that assists humans to earn the wherewithal optimally without adding to one’s propensity to exploit; a technology that assists and not replaces humans is called appropriate technology. The term ‘appropriate technology’ was, however, coined by E.F. Schumacher, well after the passing away of Gandhi.

[xxv]Decentralisation reduces the necessity for exhaustive transportation of material, both raw and finished, and therefore avoids the much-dreaded carbon footprint, while at the same time empowering people at the local level with enormous natural resources and scope for production.

[xxvi] Siby K. Joseph, ‘Understanding Gandhi’s Vision of Swadeshi’; Source: https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/understanding-gandhis-vision-of-Swadeshi.html, referred to on 21 May 2019.

[xxvii]Harijan, 10 November 1946, p. 394.

[xxviii]M.K. Gandhi, Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XX, p. 505; Harijan, 30 December 1939, Vol VII, p. 391.

[xxix] ‘According to me the economic constitution of the world should be such that everybody should be able to get sufficient work to enable him/her to make two ends meet.’ M.K. Gandhi, Young India, 15 November 1928, p. 381.

[xxx] ‘I can have no consideration for machinery which is meant either to enrich the few at the expense of the many, without cause to displace the useful labour of many.’ Harijan, 22 June 1935, p.146; ‘An economics that enables the strong to amass wealth at the expense of the weak, is a false and dismal science. True economy on the other hand, stands for social justice, it promotes the good of all equally including the weakest, and is indispensable for decent life.’ Harijan, 9 October 1937, p. 292

[xxxi] ‘The economics that hurts the moral well being of an individual or a nation are immoral and therefore sinful. The economics that permit one country to pray upon another are immoral.’ M.K. Gandhi, Young India, 13 October 1921, p. 325.

[xxxii]Young India, 4 April 1929, p. 107

[xxxiii]Speaches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi, ed. G.A. Natesan, G.A. Natesan & Co., Madras 1922, p.324

D John Chelladurai is Dean, FIDS, MGM University,Chh. Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra, India

The Vision for a Peaceful Future

Shamal Ramshe

Symbolizing our aspirations for a harmonious future.

In the current era, it is imperative to nurture children

and instil in them a lifelong commitment to the values of peace.

Introduction:

Today, I wish to engage in a thoughtful exploration of the theme that resonates deeply with our shared values - "The Vision for a Peaceful Future." As we embark on this collective journey of understanding, let us delve into the essence of what constitutes a peaceful future and why it holds unparalleled significance in the context of Gandhian philosophy.I am here to discuss the concepts of "vision" and the ideal vision of the future in this colloquium. My aim is to convey the importance of this subject by presenting a specific key aspects for your consideration.

Defining 'Vision':

At the heart of our discussion lies the term 'vision.' According to Oxford Languages, 'vision' refers to the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. It is akin to an eyesight that can pre-plan what ought to unfold. The etymology of the word 'vision' traces back to the Latin term 'vis,' meaning 'see,' and has evolved to represent far-sightedness.

In the context of "The Vision for a Peaceful Future," the emphasis is on aligning our thinking, imaginative capacities, and forward-looking perspectives to plan a future where generations can thrive in peace. This requires thoughtful considerations about the future of peace and the well-being of our successors.

Who is & what is Future:

The concept of 'Future' is intricately intertwined with the birth of a child, who embodies the promise of tomorrow. Children serve as the essence of our collective future, and our endeavours are dedicated to nurturing and shaping this future. It is essential to recognize that the seeds of peace in society are sown from the very inception, even before birth. The conduct of mothers and family members significantly influences the mental and behavioural development of the child, as they absorb the elements from their immediate environment. Therefore, today's discussion revolves around the notion of a peaceful future, inherently linked to the cultivation of peaceful children.

The Urgency for a Peaceful Future:

As we find ourselves at the intersection of a new year, it becomes imperative to reflect on the global scenarios marked by conflict, suffering, and a stark need for peace. The lives lost, especially those of innocent children, serve as poignant reminders of the urgency for peace. Statistics on violence, crimes, and the misuse of resources for military purposes underscore the pressing need for concerted efforts towards establishing peace.

(ref.1)*

According to UNICEF:

Some 15 million adolescent girls aged 15–19 have experienced forced sex in their lifetime.

About 10% of the world's children are not legally protected from corporal punishment.

Over 1 in 3 students aged 13–15 experience bullying worldwide.

Approximately 1 in 4 children under the age of 5 – some 176 million – live with a mother who is a victim of intimate partner violence.

Roughly 3 in 4 children between the ages of 2 and 4 – around 300 million – are regularly subjected to violent discipline by their caregivers.(ref.2)*

More than 1700 children are killed during Russia - Ukraine War. More than ten thousand children lost their lives in Gaza.

Who are killing them?

The humans. Who were once a child!!

Interviews and dialogues observations:

In pursuit of insights into this matter, I engaged with Mr. Milind Yadav, the visionary founder of the 'Chiller Party Movement' based in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Mr. Yadav has keenly observed the adverse effects of screen content on children, particularly through mobile phones. In response to this concern, he devised a strategic plan to channel the influence of screens in a positive direction. His movement involves showcasing carefully selected child-oriented movies, offered to the audience free of cost, with nominal fees only to cover the rental expenses of the venue. To date, this initiative has successfully exposed thousands of children to enriching cinematic experiences, accompanied by workshops aimed at imparting a thoughtful approach to movie consumption.

An additional aspect worth highlighting emerged during an interview with film critic Mr. Anmol Kothadia, shedding light on the concept of text and sub-text within screen content. Frequently, creators intend to convey a sub-textual message to the audience, yet only the surface-level text reaches them. This discrepancy has broader societal implications, especially concerning children.

In the above context Dr.Arun Shinde a professor ; said that Games featuring violence, where players engage in the act of killing, and historical destruction-themed games often carry a sub-text of aggression. Regrettably, the primary focus, or text, may be on playing and learning, but the underlying sub-text perpetuates violence. Moreover, instances exist where movies are created to oppose certain actions, yet the unintended consequence is the glorification of those very actions, significantly impacting children's behaviour.

In a disconcerting revelation, an interview with a primary school teacher Deepa Warpe having 19 years of experience with primary school, unveiled alarming insights. Children as young as six years old are well-versed in sexual signs and possess knowledge of derogatory language. This revelation underscores the urgency of addressing the manner in which our future generations are being shaped and educated.

As an illustration, consider my two-and-a-half-year-old niece, who exhibits a preference for playing with toy guns. While her parents envision a future where she may contribute to the nation's defence, there exists a poignant uncertainty. The innocent play with toy guns may unknowingly shape her perception of armed forces or even influence a more sinister path. This scenario encapsulates the complex reality of how today's children, our future, are being nurtured.

“In the past, when technology was not readily available to children, these topics were not as regularly occurring in children's lives. Now, the most common children's hobbies are playing video games, watching television and movies, listening to music, and surfing the net, all of which often contain themes of violence.” - Ashley Ward(ref.3)*

So, the pervasive influence of screen content on children demands immediate attention. Initiatives like the 'Chiller Party Movement' highlight the potential for positive change, emphasizing the need for deliberate interventions that channel screen exposure in ways that contribute to the holistic development of our future generations. The urgency of this matter cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts the well-being and behavioural patterns of children in our rapidly evolving world.

Guidance from Gandhian Principles:

How do we go about establishing peace? Gandhi's own words provide valuable insights. A robust social system, grounded in reason, justice, inclusive religious ideas, equal status for women, and access to opportunities for all, forms the foundation for peace. These principles, while profoundly simple, guide us towards a path of sustainable and meaningful peace.

Gandhi's philosophy is not merely a theoretical construct; it is a practical guide for our actions. As students of IFPNP, we were urged in the initial sessions to understand Gandhi before gradually adapting his principles into our lives. Now, the time has come to take this understanding and adapt Gandhian principles actively, promoting and establishing peace in our society.

The Imperative of Learning from the Past:

According to me, in the pursuit of peace, it is essential to recognize the value of learning from the past. While studying history, we often find ourselves at risk of getting stuck in the past rather than deriving meaningful lessons for the present and future. The past serves as a guidepost, offering insights into what worked and what didn't. It should not shackle us but empower us to implement and utilize its lessons for a more beautiful future.

Actionable Steps:

To actualize our vision for a peaceful future, we must meticulously plan our vision board, focusing on the crucial role of children. Designing activities that instil peace values for children from kindergarten to 1st standard, evolving to more challenging programs for older age groups, is imperative. Recognizing that present children are the architects of our future, our efforts for a peaceful future must prioritize investing in them.

Additionally, policies impacting individuals must be designed with an emphasis on social justice and rationality. We must redirect resources currently flowing our billions of dollars into military tools towards providing essential needs like food, clothing, and shelter, thus contributing to the overall well-being of society. As we see many children below 18 years of age are dealing with livelihood problems, so they are turning towards bad habits and irrational and unethical businesses. Thus, the call for peace is not just an aspiration; it is an urgent and collective responsibility.

In contemporary times, a concerning trend has emerged where children are increasingly exhibiting violent behaviours. Through extensive research and numerous interviews, it has become evident that children are spending a significant amount of their time in front of screens, making these devices an integral part of their lives. The impact of screen content on today's children cannot be overlooked, prompting an exploration into potential interventions for a more positive influence.

To conclude, our vision board for a peaceful future must boldly declare that children are the most crucial element. To reach them effectively, we must plan activities focusing on peace values for children from kindergarten to 1st standard. As they grow, the nature of activities and programs should evolve, presenting challenges for age groups 7 to 10 and 11 to 18.

Ashley Ward “I believe that as an educator of children I have a role in teaching children about peaceful behaviour. I need to be a positive role model for children by showing them peaceful ways of thinking and behaving. In Canada the topic of peace is to be covered in each elementary school grade through our social studies curriculum. As teachers we strive to include peace education in our daily classroom activities and we also do specific lesson plans covering the topic of peace education, such as studying peaceful movements or specific individuals. Some of the ways in which peaceful behaviour and understanding is developed through daily classroom activities” (ref.4)*

Hence, I underline that ; we have the opportunity to introduce educational and enjoyable games that replace guns and jets with flowers and plants. By innovating the educational approach, we can create a space where children effortlessly internalize the principles of peace and non-violence.

Gandhi's Light in the Stormy Ocean:

In the today’s atmosphere where we the advocates of non-violence & peace are standing in the middle of stormy ocean; Gandhi's philosophy is often likened to a lighthouse guiding us through this stormy ocean of our times. As students of IFPNP, we are not just recipients of knowledge; we are bearers of a legacy that beckons us to actively contribute to the establishment of peace in our societies. Our understanding of Gandhian principles must translate into practical actions.

In the 21st century, we stand at a critical juncture where we must contemplate how to integrate Gandhian principles into our lives to foster peace, to enrich children, our future. Our vision board for a peaceful future should prioritize children considering the overarching principles of social justice, gender equality, and equal opportunities for all.

Conclusion:

The present children are our future, and to work for a peaceful future, we must work on moulding their minds towards values of peace. To address social justice and reason, we must design policies that positively impact individuals. Gandhi's philosophy is not merely about understanding; it is a constitution that invites us to critically examine our lives and the surrounding world.

In conclusion, I would like to leave you with my favourite quote by Gandhi, which encapsulates the essence of his teachings:

"In a gentle way, you can shake the world."

This powerful statement has been a guiding principle in my life, reminding me of the transformative impact that even the smallest acts of kindness and compassion can have on our world.

As we collectively strive towards; our peaceful future i.e. today’s children, let us bear in mind the profound impact we can have on the world by actively embodying and promoting Gandhian principles for every child.

References:

1) 1.https://www.thequint.com/neon/social-buzz/childrens-day-children-in-gaza-israel-palestine-conflict-death-roll-rising-a(ref.1)*

2) 2.https://www.unicef.org/protection/violence-against-children(ref.2)*

3) 3. https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/elementary_schl.htm(ref.3 & ref 4)*

4) 4. Mr.Milind Yadav (VRS Teacher, Founder Chiller Party Movement)

5) 5. Dr.AnmolKothadia (BAMS Doctor, Film Critic)

6) 6.Dr.Arun Shinde (College Professor, Author, Researcher)

7) 7.Mrs.DeepaWarpe (Primary School Teacher, 20 years of experience with kids; age group 5 to 14)

Miss. Shamal Ramshe is Fellow, International Fellowship Program on Nonviolence & Peace

Screening Harmony: Gandhi’s Idea of Peace As Solution in The Cinematic Sphere

Akash Singh Thakur

The colloquium tries to understand the complex juncture of technology, humanity, sustainability, and everlasting principles of Gandhi in relation to peace. It tries to conduct multidimensional dialogue that encourages participants to envision a future where technology and humanity coexist harmoniously. In the current times marked by rapid technological advancements,my discussiontry to explore the role of technology as a potential catalyst for peace and spread ideas related toGandhi's philosophy to foster global harmony while addressing the pressing issues of our time. In this context the specific case of Hindi cinema is taken into consideration.The current time with unprecedented technological advancements and the universal influence of cinematic narratives, the timeless teachings of Mahatma Gandhi on peace comes with renewed urgency. Gandhi's principles of nonviolence, truth, and harmony, refined within the areas of ashrams and tested on the grand stage of a nation's struggle for independence. It continues to offer profound insights into the quest for global peace. The areas of the digital and cinematic spheresin form of Hindi cinema provide opportunities to shape and disseminate the Gandhi's message of peace. The presence of Gandhi in Hindi cinema has played a crucial role to spread his ideas to all the section of the society. Hence the discussion is divided into two parts: first showing the problems due to advent of technology and other viewing technology in form of cinema using Gandhi depicting solution to issues.

Introduction

Gandhi’s ideas and concepts remain highly relevant in contemporary times, and his philosophy and teachings continue to resonate with many people in India and worldwide. He comes as a solution to many present-day problems. His influence exists in almost all aspects of day-to-day life, where few significant areas can be termed as: ranging from non-violent conflict resolution, social justice and equality, environment and sustainability, ethics and morality, leadership, peacekeeping and reconciliation, rights and duties, and overall personal transformation with the development of the self. His philosophies not only exist and are practised at the general level by a particular elite or educated section of the society, but rather are operated by a more comprehensive, diverse number of masses, even in the areas of extreme interiority of the country. He has been highly represented and used in popular culture, which makes his philosophy accessible to a large number of people. His most incredible quality is how he has reached out to people in extreme interiors of the nation. People might not have read his original philosophical work, but they are very well acquainted with his ideas and concepts. His representation in various forms has made it possible to reach his views to larger masses. In representation, visual tools become very important as they can easily communicate complex ideas and concepts more efficiently and effectively, enhance comprehension and retention of memory, engage and have a great persuasive power to influence people’s opinions, attitudes and behaviour. In India, Hindi cinema is the largest form of visual representation. It has various benefits, such as easy accessibility to a wider audience, ease of consumption, and at the same time, influencing people’s thought processes and ideas. Now it is not just restricted as a medium of entertainment. Instead, it is also a source of educating people and reinforcing values and ideals. It becomes necessary to study the two significant mass influencing areas in Indian history i.e., MK Gandhi and Hindi cinema, and how in the current time, after the dismissal of one, the other is using it to influence people’s ideas. If we look at Gandhi,he has formulated a philosophy of peace that transcends temporal and geographical boundary. His ideas related to social justice and a holistic approach to humanity have influenced numerous people and movements. In the same way cinema come out as a crucial juncture that transcends spaces and spread the ideas related to it across regions and influence people. The cinematic space that has capacity to comprehend human experience and ideas in vivid detail is significant in influencing and shaping societal perspective.

Advent of Technology in India

The cinematic sphere of India grew and became more influential with the advent of technology in the country. The advent of technology and the notion of global village in context of India took place at the juncture of last decade of the 20^th century. The period of 1990s substantially changed the culture of the country with four major events:

1. The government of India took the turn to liberalization that led to privatization and globalization. The nation now was connected to countries around the world leading to formation of global village.

2. The idea of decentralization with 73^rd constitution amendment act.

3. The country witnessed the rise of violence and communal issues in the form of demolishing of Babri Masjid followed by 1993 Mumbai bomb attacks

4. Rising consciousness among the people in relation to environment. This consciousness led to coming up of various protest movements associated with environment and sustainability.

These instances changed the discourse across the country. They effected people in a substantial manner leading to find a way for a more peace and all-inclusive type of growth for the country. These four events have altogether her different connection with Gandhi: first eventwas away from Gandhi’s idea. The notion of liberalization led to the two more concepts along with it: privatization and globalization. It led to opening up of the Indian market, bringing big private global countries and further leading to more disparity between rich and poor but at the same time leading to flourishing of new class in the Indian society in form od middle class. It led to more aspirations of the people. The second event of decentralization of the country with 73^rd constitution amendment act was influenced with the Gandhi’s idea of swaraj. It led to providing more power and autonomy to the villages. It acted as an essential step towards flourishing villages. Third major event of communal violence led to divergent gap between Hindu and Muslim argued for need for Gandhi’s idea who throughout his life worked for communal harmony. When we analyse more closely the major people involved in this violence were mostly from the above discussed unemployed middle class. Finally, the decade also witnesses the environment related consciousness among the people in relation to environment and sustainability across the globe. Sunderlal Bahuguna employed the final stage of Satyagraha, i.e., the fasting; thereafter was the Narmada bachaoandolan,a movement that opposed the construction of large dams on the Narmada River. Led by activist Medha Patkar, the campaign employed methods of Satyagraha, including hunger strikes, protests, and non-violent resistance, to demand the rights of displaced communities and raise awareness about the environmental and social impacts of the dams.

One common link that can be situated within these above four discussed crucial events is the rise and role of middle class. The period saw the emergence an altogether new class in the form of new middle class Indian society. The major section of people used to come from villages to small town and start to join jobs, that were result of liberalization in form of BPOs, and other companies. The started earning and shifted from lower class to middle class with the aspirations build across by looking at thew western culture. There was now a heterogeneous group of citizen-consumers with totally changed lifestyles, and acts as a symbolic representation of the link between liberalization, development, and nationhood. Those who demolished the Babri Masjid were mostly lower-middle-class urban youth whose opportunities have not met their expectations, expressing resentment towards perceived outsiders. Innumerable sections of Hindu society feel susceptible by changes like affirmative action, trade liberalization, and foreign employers, challenging their status and privileges¹. The led to essential need of revisiting idea of Gandhi in context of communal harmony and caste issues. Other section of conscious understood from the same class saw the changing dynamics of the globe and the drastic effect it is creating in the nature. They started to protect and protest against the idea of unlimited reckless use of the earth’s atmosphere and nature. They revisited Gandhi’s view of in relation to nature and at the same time used his idea of Satyagraha to resist authorities.

Other than the middle essential thing to analyse is that it was the first event of liberalization that acts as a point of connection and emergence of other events. As it is liberalization that formed the new class. Here Gandhi becomes important. The culture of liberalisation led to consumerism and unlimited greed for material things. This is filled up by soulless transnational corporation that have led to marginalization of many people world-wide mainly the poor. As this consumerism requires active engagement of all classes it affects all. This greed has led consumers away from the path of personal liberation. There is monoculture form of culture due to globalization and this destroying all alternative way of livings. Here the question arises is what could have been a way to make reach the wide audience related to spreading the ideas of peace. Here Hindi cinema comes out as a solution. As with liberalization television reached houses of these middle-class people and it is here with television and cinema that discourses and ideas were created around it.

Cinematic Sphere

In the context of India, the country is the world’s largest producer of cinema, which is the highest form of exclusive entertainment. It is one of the most influential mediums of communication to a large number of people in India. Hindi cinema has always been a medium of mass consumption. It acts as a dominant medium of entertainment and can revise and influence the perception of the audience. This subsequently leads to change in the viewpoint of people towards a certain object, theme or the person with which it deals. It modifies and challenges existing norms and ideologies. One of the important things about it is that it acts as an unofficial ideological apparatus. People from every section of society, irrespective of their social background and age, watch it, engage in it, and range their emotions from happiness, sadness, and anger, leading to protests and movements. In short, all human emotions are associated with it². The primary imagination of India is seen in movies. It is the area that can be considered as the larger cultural entity, that is most ‘pervasive driving force of popular modernity in modern India’³. Popular Hindi cinema is “a site for the ideological production…as the (re)production of the state form”⁴. It creates a space for everyone by keeping plurality grounded in traditions⁵. “Indian cinema audience not only as the reader but also as the real author of the text of Hindi films⁶.

Liberalization affected Hindi cinema in many ways. It was in 1998 that the Government of India gave the status of ‘industry’ to commercial cinema, enabling productions to get bank financing and loans for film development⁷. It gained recognition worldwide, and a lot of money was pumped into the industry.

Gandhi and Hindi Cinematic Sphere

Both Gandhi and Hindi cinema are similar on the ground of connecting with the masses. They both use symbols and dialogues, appeal to the masses, have similar philosophical terrain and celebrate diversity. When modernity appeared as a threat, Hindi cinema emerged as a social purpose by unexpected means, including unlikely figures concerning modernity like MK Gandhi. Hindi cinema is a crucial space to interrogate Gandhi, as it provides another space that tries to maintain autonomy from the space of preachers/defenders/beneficiaries of Gandhian legacies and the state apparatus to analyze it. “Gandhi never attempted to establish a relationship with cinematic institutions, though cinema has embraced him through various ways”⁸. Cinema using Gandhi shows the path of modern citizens and teaches them passive resistance.

Looking historically, the first attempt to make a film associated with Gandhi’s life was when the British government approached D.W. Griffith to make an anti-Gandhi film in 1923, but it was never made⁹. Later, his visual journey started with a Tamil documentary by AK Chettiar in 1940, where his footage from 1920 onwards was put together. Though the original was lost, its shorter form remained as Mahatma Gandhi-Twentieth century prophet (1953). The first released movie on Gandhi was Mark Robson Nine hours to Rama 1962, based on the banned book in India by Stanley Wolpert. First, entirely based on Gandhi, was Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982)¹⁰.

Some of the movies that were made post liberalization and consisting the ideas related to Gandhi are: Saradar (1993); The Making of the Mahatma (1996); Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (2000); Hey Ram (2000); The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002);Pinjar (2003);Swades (2004); Maine Gandhi Ko NahiMaara (2005); Water (2005); Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006); Gandhi My Father (2007);CheeniKum (2007);Dharm (2007);Delhi 6 (2009); Road to Sangam (2010); Gandhigiri (2016); Hamne Gandhi Ko maar Diya (2018); Tumbaad (2018); Satyameva Jayate (2018 & 2021); Kaagaz (2021); Sita Ramam (2022).

All these movies were made looking at the emerging issues in the country with the advent of liberalization and technology. Here ideas of Gandhi were thought crucial to be reached to people and cinema was taken as a medium and use his philosophy to resolve problems. It created a discourse around the ideas projected in the movie related to Gandhi that brought him back in the public realm. These had an influence on people watching and discussing the movies. It made people better comprehend with the idea of peace as proposed by Gandhi and at the same time they have realisation of the negative effect by looking at the visual projection of violence that directly affect the people.

Movies such as Dharm, Delhi 6, Sita Ramam, Pinjar dealt with the idea of communal harmony where it made people realise the idea of unity as propounded by Gnadhi and make them practice it. Movies likeLage Raho Munnabhai (2006) Satyameva Jayate (2018 & 2021); Kaagaz (2021);CheeniKum (2007); projected peace with non-violent resistance in from of Satyagraha. Other movies have showed the issues of environment and sustainability as argued by Gandhi depicted in movie such as Tumbaad (2018).

Conclusion

With the advent of technology with liberalization emerged certain problems in Indian society. It led to coming up of new middle class along with other disturbances in the society. Here it was essential to revisit the ideas of Gandhi. This was done by using a tool from technology itself i.e., cinematic sphere that screened harmony and led to emergence of a discourse around the peace among the people. M.K Gandhi’s presence, adaptation, production, consumption, conceptualization and representation depicts his never-ending relevance in India. Films have directly portrayed his life and teachings, while others have indirectly incorporated his principles by portraying characters, their struggles, and solutions. With the growing instances of violence worldwide, his concept of peace with communal harmony and satyagraha has significantly influenced Hindi cinema, depicting it as a solution. These cinematic representations have helped construct meaning and discourse around Gandhi and helped popularize and spread awareness about Satyagraha as a means of social and political transformation. It brought the essential idea of Gandhi into the public sphere, showed how it functions and its positive results, shaped their beliefs and made everyone comprehend them.

References

1. Tharoor, S. (2000). India: From midnight to the millennium. Penguin Books India.

2. Kirloskar-Steinbach, M., Dwyer, R., &Phalkey, J. (Eds.). (2015). Key Concepts in Modern Indian Studies. NY: New York University Press. p.32-33.

3. Rajadhyaksha, A. (2016). Indian cinema: A very short introduction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. p.30

4. Prasad, M. (2021). Ideology of the Hindi Film A historical construction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. p.9

5. Nandy, A. (1998). Introduction: Indian popular cinema as a slum’s eye view of politics. The secret politics of our desires: Innocence, culpability and Indian popular cinema, 1-18. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. p.12.

6. Kakar, S. (1990). Intimate relations: exploring Indian sexuality. USA: University of Chicago Press. p, 38

7. Joshi, P. (2015). Bollywood’s India: A Public Fantasy. Columbia: Columbia University Press. p. 107

8. Rai, D. (2011). Popular Hindi Cinema as Gandhi’s Alter Ego: An Exploration in Respect of Gandhi, My Father. Social Change, 41(1), 63-78.

9. Kripalani, C. (2020). Reviving Gandhi and the Utopia of Hind Swaraj in Popular Hindi Films. In K.B. Saxena (Eds.), Swaraj and the Reluctant State (pp. 133-152). New Delhi: Aakar.

10. Dwyer, R. (2011). The case of the missing Mahatma: Gandhi and the Hindi cinema. Public Culture, 23(2), 349-376.

Akash Singh Thakur is Research Scholar School of Social Science, Central University of Gujarat, Sector 29, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382030 Email: akashsinghthakur97@gmail.com

............................

Decoding Sustainable living and its Interconnections

Climus T. J.

It is pertinent to note that at present human lives are badly affected by a lot of factors and caught in a vicious circle making it almost impossible to come out. A whole lot of issues such as poverty, hunger, pollution etc. are affecting human lives and their living patterns. Can you visualize a situation in which a dog is trying to catch its tail and going round and round behind its tail? Human life is also undergoing a somewhat similar situation.

Human beings are the worst victims of a lot of environmental issues. If we go into the root cause, we can observe that environmental issues are mainly the result of the lifestyle of human beings. It is a puzzle which humanity has to address at the earliest. Food, health and education are directly or indirectly connected to our environment. Our urban uprooted lifestyles, mindless consumerism, centralized economic model, exploitation of resources, urban migration, industrialisation and so on contributed towards environmental issues.

The quality of food was far better earlier and people remained healthy. What is the situation now? Presently we are consuming foods which are not cultivated in our locality or in our country. On the contrary, we are getting food items not only from other countries but also from other continents. Food travels or gets transported to thousands of kilometres away to reach the end consumer. Nowadays any minute supply chain issues in transportation will affect our availability of food and people may go starving. Not just the market, many external factors are controlling our everyday life. Our life is no more independent and it is totally dependent on factors such as transportation, supply chain, energy and many other things. People who are unknown to us sitting in remote locations are regulating and controlling our daily lives .Life became quite complex and the human brain cannot simply comprehend the scenario. We no longer have control over fulfilling our basic needs.

If you want to regain your control in food you have to produce your requirements in your locality and to consume local varieties and seasonal items. If you get good food, your health will be better as a corollary your mental health will also be better. It would result in better thinking, understanding, and comprehension and equips your mind to receive the right kind of education. Once you have the right kind of education, you will do the right kind of physical, mental, emotional, social activities and optimal use of resources without distributing the ecosystem.

Centralized economy related practices lead to exploitation of resources and create imbalances in the ecosystem. Such an economy requires vast amounts of resources that results in exploitation of natural resources and also leads to high levels of pollution. It displaces people from villages to urban areas resulting in migration. Urban migration leads to distancing people from natural food ecosystems in the villages. Also it creates slums without having basic necessities, poor sanitation and hygiene. People living in urban areas with poverty and hunger are more prone to social evils including crime. A centralized system promotes a lifestyle with indiscriminate consumerism, excessive use of automobiles and many other temptations of urban life. Automobile related pollution, accidents and environmental calamities or disasters due to indiscriminate construction and developmental projects are part and parcel of such a system.

Urban migration and urbanization are commonly used as synonyms. But Urbanization is really a monstrous one having a greater impact on the lives of the people. Real effect of urbanization is unimaginable. We may not be able to find a direct culprit for urbanization but it has created real havoc in human civilization. It uprooted humans from their natural habitat and created unsustainable human settlements. It resulted in exploitation of renewable and non-renewable energy sources to cater large scale industrialization and mindless consumerism. Urbanisation forces you to adopt a lifestyle that creates health hazards resulting in total loss of natural immunity of human beings. Urbanisation leads to a lot of social evils, exponentially increased crime rate and exploitation of humanity and more.

Agriculture practices we are following today are altogether unsustainable resulting in the loss of fertility of the soil. Agriculture based on chemical fertilizers and pesticides also leads to water pollution, livestock health and health hazards to human beings including cancerous diseases.

Exploitation of natural resources is a widely known phenomenon happening in almost every nook and corner of the globe. It leads to widespread repercussions in the environment, ecology and human life. Mindless exploitation of natural resources by capitalist forces leads to imbalance in the society and concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Indiscriminate use of fossil fuels leads to climatic change and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, coastal areas, including many low-lying islands, disappeared. Powerful nation states with an eye on exploitation of natural resources directly or indirectly supported many wars and various countries were destroyed.

Industrialization is marching forward and it is almost impossible to stop its tempo. As a corollary, humanity is facing right now large scale pollution and fast depletion of non-renewable energy sources due to endless transportation. Is this phase reversible?

It is true that human life is interdependent. We have to depend on nature for resources and other societies for fulfilling our needs. Also it is true that we cannot suddenly reduce industrialization. The fact of the matter is that if you go the same way, same speed, same direction we are not going to survive for quite a long time. If there is any trace of wisdom in humanity this is the high time to take the decision to reduce, reverse and regenerate.

In the fields of food, health and education we have to make drastic changes for our very survival. We need to be more diligent in terms of requirements to lead a meaningful and happy life. It calls for an alternative lifestyle fulfilling basic necessities of life. Production should be need based. Decentralization is the key in the whole production process. We have to regenerate and preserve energy and resources. This Planet does not belong to us. This is given by our forefathers and we have to give it to our coming generations. We are just trustees or custodians of the planet for a limited period of time. It is our duty to look after and replenish the planet. With a minimalistic approach we can give back this and only habitable planet to our next generations. Even if we do not do our duty, nature will survive in its own way but we will not be there for long. It is better to perform good deeds than to perish permanently.

Mr. Climus T. J. is attached to SERI, KALSAF, Bangalore.

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Reflections Colloquium on Emerging Challenges and Scope for Peace January 12 -13 , 2024

Reflections

Louis Campana

The Artificial Intelligence

Vijay Tambe

3

Temporary Monopolies’ in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Power Asymmetries, and the Need for Collective Governance

Dr. Rajesh Many

Introduction

Incident #1 Meta's Biased AI Moderation

Man vs. Machine

Obedience to the law of Nature:

Means Justifies the Ends

Rights and Duties

Conclusion:

Envisioning a Sustainable Future

D John Chelladurai

Akash Singh Thakur

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Popular posts from this blog

Assignment Attendance Tutorials

Tributes to Johan Vincent Galtung

Reflections Colloquium on Emerging Challenges and Scope for Peace January 12 -13 , 2024

Reflections

Louis Campana

The Artificial Intelligence

Vijay Tambe

3

Temporary Monopolies’ in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Power Asymmetries, and the Need for Collective Governance Dr. Rajesh Many

Introduction

Incident #1 Meta's Biased AI Moderation

Man vs. Machine

Obedience to the law of Nature:

Means Justifies the Ends

Rights and Duties

Conclusion:

Envisioning a Sustainable Future

D John Chelladurai

Akash Singh Thakur

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Assignment Attendance Tutorials

Tributes to Johan Vincent Galtung

Temporary Monopolies’ in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Power Asymmetries, and the Need for Collective Governance

Dr. Rajesh Many