Note: This is the modified SIDH vision statement. The earlier version is available as the first post on this blog.

Introduction:

When we look around, we see that modern systems – economic, social, technological, educational etc. – appear to be aligned against the fundamental human need for peace and happiness. They seem to inexorably lead towards crises in individual lives and in society at large. The rise of individualism, which is central to modernity along with associated “ideas” like freedom, rights and equality, pushes us towards comparison and competition and towards converting every want into a need. The cost we pay for this is visible in our broken, unhappy relationships at personal, familial and societal levels. Despoliation and degradation of our life-supporting natural world and strife at the global level also seems to be built into modernity. Our modern lives are lived out in a bleak, unhappy, faithless landscape with no apparent avenue of living a happy life.

The problems of modernity which are faced by everyone across the uni-polar world of western liberalism that we all unfortunately find ourselves in, are compounded in India by the still festering wounds inflicted by the brutal Islamic and British rule we endured over the last 1000 years or so. As a people we, perhaps, need to derive strength and wisdom from our still surviving civilizational roots and to heal our wounded collective psyche. At SIDH-Asli Shiksha we want to continue and grow our work of research, publishing and running workshops/ courses, with an objective of creating strong, grounded, confident Indians.

Direction:

We believe that the fundamentals of Indian traditions are based on eternal, existential Truth (the Sanaatan), therefore it is in harmony with the way the world IS. Modernity imposes its own unnatural order on this existential order causing conflict at the individual and societal levels.

Our endeavor is to work in this area to:

1. Expose the myths and falsehoods of modernity.
2. Bring out and establish the eternal, the Sanaatan.
3. Correct the narrative of India, its civilization, culture and belief systems.

Work done:

Since 1989:

• Running 35 rural schools and an experimental nai-taleem based school in rural Uttarakhand.
• Workshops, seminars and residential programs at SIDH Kempty campus (1 year long programs for youth, for example).
• 40 plus books in Hindi and English published since 1989.
• A quarterly journal, Raibar.

More recently:

• Online courses on education and modernity (8-hour long, 1-month long and 2-month long with various levels of participant interaction).
• A weekly blog on education and modernity for our course/ workshop alumni.

Way forward:

• Forming partnerships with aligned people and organizations.
• Creating online and offline courses and workshops for looking at various aspects of modernity with reference to our civilization.
• Researching our traditional knowledge systems about various aspects of life (food, health, behaviors, weather, agriculture, forest, flora, fauna, soil, water, air etc.).
• Looking into our Itihaas – scriptures, literature, folk stories, idioms/ phrases, songs/ legends etc. – in different Indian languages/ dialects to cull out the essence, the fundamental premises, the knowledge about different aspects of life embedded therein.

If you are interested in joining our journey in any way (funding it, working with us etc.), please write to arun@aslishiksha.com to start a conversation.

Namaste!