International Day of Nonviolence Oct.2, 2010
Since 2005, OraWorldMandala – a world theatre for Ahimsa through Art - and Gujarat Vidyapith together with twelve different religious communities in and around the city of Ahmedabad have been making an experimental attempt for the creation of a model of education for Ahimsa through Art.
Mahatma Gandhi, of course, is our source of inspiration.
This urban social platform in Ahmedabad sent out inspirational waves far and wide and a group of people on the same wavelength in Mexico City were inspired to do a similar experiment in conflict resolution which they thought was their urgent social requirement. This Mexican group consists of people drawn from diverse backgrounds – farmers, workers, students, entire families etc.
We used to have programmes on Gandhi Jayanti – 2nd October - which is being observed as International Day of Nonviolence the world over.
This year we are planning to observe 2nd Oct., with simultaneous peace action between Ahmedabad and Mexico City. The programmes will be similar but not the same. The common denominator will be an artistic (re)presentation dedicated to Mother Earth.
The stage in Ahmedabad will be Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram, haloed by the visible and invisible presence of the Mahatma, from where the peace process of Ahimsa through Art was launched in April, 2005.
The presentation will be as follows:
Students from over a dozen schools and colleges from the city and its suburbs will congregate around a Mandala which is conceived as a symbol of peace and harmony and perform a very special artistic presentation. This performance will be enveloped by an aura of music played by A-HOPE (Ahmedabad Harmonic Orchestra for Peace Everywhere) a musical activists’ group committed to Nonviolence and consisting of members from twelve different communities. The accompanying music will be a rare confluence of selected compositions from both Indian and Mexican musical traditions. Well-known Mexican composer Margarita Martinez Duarte and the famous Indian composer Ashwin Dalvi from Jaipur, will be leading the performance.
The honourable Ambassador of the Republic of Mexico to India Mr. Jaime Nualart has kindly consented to be the chief guest of the function.
Preceding this rare performance and in a sense to preface it, there will be a special concert in Sabarmati Jail. It may be relevant to recall here that for Gandhiji jail was also mandir and hence OraWorldMandala thought it proper to inaugurate the day’s programme in the Sabarmati Jail.
At Sabarmati Jail: 2.30PM
At Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram: 6PM
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