Be inspired:
Learning Respect

In a religiously plural Indian society, where violence and vandalism create chaos, stalwarts actualize peace. One is John Chelladurai, a prolific social analyst and an eminent in Conflict Transformation and Peace Building. He serves as the Dean of Postgraduate studies at Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharastra.

His primary dictum echo’s in a resounding voice “The poor have the right to live a dignified life”. Hailing from a poor background, he identifies himself with the pain and suffering of the vulnerable. Amidst the excruciating realities of life characterized by depravity and poverty, he experienced the warmth of love and companionship of his family and friends. Having experienced his family as a paradigm of peaceful and harmonious co-existence, he envisions a family model in a diversely plural society to shower love and cater acceptance devoid of discrimination of any kind. In formulating a peace model, he constructs a ‘family prototype’ where differences are cherished, and life is celebrated in plurality. Thus his social- analytical method for peacebuilding is based on ‘commune living’.

With his friends, he developed the ‘commune living experiment’. The team bought land and built a house for living by agriculture and survived on its produce. They shared their money in common. Each person had the right to expend, provided they reach community consensus. In this process, they encountered several challenges that were quintessential in developing conflict resolving methods. They figured out various strategic ways which constituted the praxiological basis for building peace.

As the Director of India Peace Centre, Nagpur he initiated several conflict transformation methods, among which ‘dialogue for life’ receives special significance. There he emphasized the ‘method of Dialogue’ to resolve the conflict of existence and affirm life beyond the ‘constructed boundaries’ in fullness devoid of any factors which give rise to difference. So, he abandoned his Christian identity concerning the religiously plural India. His home was open to everyone regardless of religious identity where he hosted various religious festivals. He moved beyond his religious construct to identify with all. He created groups comprised of interfaith personals devoid of neither religious nor political affiliation. This method proved to be a great success. Under his able leadership, several dialogue groups aimed at conflict resolution have emerged and have considerably impacted society to forging peace and sustainable relationships. He continues to inspire persons like me in peacebuilding and poverty eradication.

Samuel Logan Ratnaraj