Arise Bharat

International Centre for Cultural Studies and RIWATCH Hosts Gathering of Spiritual Masters at Shiksha Valley School, Dibrugarh

January 27, 2024, Dibrugarh: The 8th International Conference and Gathering of Elders is scheduled to take place at Shiksha Valley School in Dibrugarh from January 28 to February 1, 2024. The event is being proudly announced by the International Centre for Cultural Studies (ICCS), a non-political, non-religious, non-profit socio-cultural forum for Elders (spiritual masters, regardless of age) of ancient traditions and cultures of the world, founded by Dr. Yashwant Pathak and team, with its headquarters in the USA. North East India being a hotspot of cultural diversity, indigeneity, and a strong representation of the underlying unity amid diversity, is chosen as the location for this conference. The conference, hosted in Dibrugarh, aims to foster an exchange of ancient indigenous knowledge with the objective of building shared sustainable prosperity for the world.

As the Shiksha Valley School in Dibrugarh transforms into a melting pot of beautiful cultures from across the world, about 300 participants from over 33 nations have convened for the Conference to share their spiritual wisdom, represent their traditions, and experience others’. On Days 1, 2, and 3, the conference will feature paper presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and cultural nights centered around the topics of ecological wisdom, collaborative governance, and revival of traditions. Beginning on Day 1, there will be a rally in Dibrugarh Town from Phool Bagan to Thana Charali. This will be followed by an inaugural event with Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Himanta Biswa Sharma, as the Chief Guest, and RSS Sarsanghachaalak, Shri Mohan Bhagwat Ji. The Conference will conclude with a field tour to RIWATCH, where the participants will meet with the local spiritual leaders and the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Shri Pema Khandu, will inaugurate the museum and the International House of Thoughts. Shri. Dattatreya Hosable, Sarkaryavah RSS will be present on 31st Jan, 2024 along with CM and Dy. CM of Arunachal Pradesh in Dibrugarh.

Dr. Ratan Sharda ji, of ICCS, stated, “We extend a warm invitation to the press to join us at Shiksha Valley School in Dibrugarh to witness and cover this momentous occasion.”

Press representatives are welcome to attend the conference and offer their observations from this special meeting. Throughout the event, journalists will have the chance to interact with speakers, take part in panel discussions, and see the diversity of cultures. For media inquiries, press accreditation, or additional information, one can contact Shri Manoj Bajaj, Secretary, Organizing Committee, ICCS Dibrugarh Conference on his mobile: 9435035731

Brief Introduction to ICCS
International Centre for Cultural Studies (ICCS) is a non-political, non-religious, non-profit, socio-cultural forum that provides a platform for the Elders of the ancient traditions and cultures of the world. Spiritual masters, regardless of age, of ancient cultures are called Elders. ICCS was established in Nagpur, Bharat, by a group of academicians and scholars in 1997 who were fascinated by diverse ancient cultural traditions of the world, aligning with the Indian philosophy of life, living with nature and aspiring for universal well-being. Dr Yashwant Pathak and the team founded an institution to explore, research, learn and internalise their ideas through global networking for promotion and preservation of of ancient cultures. It began its journey as an institute of Indo-African Studies based on Dr Pathak’s explorations resulting in the search of similarities between Hindu and African traditions. The native communities of Africa, Australia, Southeast and East Asia, North and South America, and Europe welcomed the idea enthusiastically and joined hands for strengthening these common cultural bonds. This global networking nurtured with similar vision resulted in membership of over 1000 elders, representing more than 75 different cultures of the world from over 40 different countries. Most of these traditions believe in the concept that world is one family as is expressed in Bharatiya thought of Vasudhaiva Kutumabakam, meaning one world, one family one future.
This strong group gathers every three years to offer solutions to the challenges faced by the modern society, which is an outcome of various ‘isms’ like Communism, Capitalism or Mercantilism. Economic models offered by various regimes, primarily based on materialistic view of life, have resulted in environmental pollution and exploitation of mother nature beyond available resources; while ancient cultures emphasize on optimal utilization of resources based on our needs not greed. Material progress has to keep a balance between the availability of natural resources considering needs of the future generations. The systems of agriculture, animal husbandry, mining, water, available natural resources and renewable energy, etc. should be followed the way done by the Ancient Cultures.

United Nations and the developed world are committed to work for diversity and inclusion but end up with exclusion and discrimination against several groups and communities. Being unrelated to cultural traditions of the communities has this idea has failed miserably across the world. The SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) that are now been professed by the UN are advocating development based on cultures and ethos strongly. It has the potential of connecting communities. Participation of the communities in the development process can only bring the change that has been expected to achieve SDG goals. In 1951, the United Nations passed a resolution that had far-reaching consequences. It said, “There is a sense in which rapid economic progress is impossible without painful adjustments. Ancient philosophies have to be scrapped; old social institutions have to disintegrate; bonds of caste, creed and race have to burst; and large numbers of persons who cannot keep up with progress have to have their expectations of a comfortable life frustrated. Very few communities are willing to pay the full price of economic progress.” (United Nations, 1951, p.15. http://assets. press. princeton.edu/chapters/s9564.pdf)

On the basis of this resolution a lot of initiatives, including research and grassroot level activism, were prescribed to make governments especially of Third World countries “to scrap ancient philosophies” and for “old social institution to disintegrate” all towards that one goal: ‘rapid economic progress’. The amount of violence unleashed- tangible and intangible, and irrevocable damage caused, can barely be imagined, leave alone repaired.

It took more than sixty years for the United Nations to acknowledge this as below, ‘We consider that in the face of mounting challenges such as population growth, urbanization, environmental degradation, disasters, climate change, increasing inequalities and persisting poverty, there is an urgent need for new approaches which emphasize harmony among peoples and between humans and nature. Moreover, social equity, dignity, well-being and sustainability are the most sought-after values. The Hangzhou Declaration Placing culture at the Heart of Sustainable Development Policies, May 2013 declared– We, the participants, share in the ideals of “Diversity in Harmony” and “Harnessing the Past to Create the Future” expressed by our Congress; We commit ourselves to developing action plans based on this Declaration and to working together for their implementation towards 2015 and beyond; We believe that the integration of culture into development policies and programmes will set the stage for a new era of global development; We recommend, therefore, that a specific Goal focused on culture be included as part of the post-2015 UN development agenda, to be based on heritage, diversity, creativity and the transmission of knowledge and including clear targets and indicators that relate culture to all dimensions of sustainable development.
The Key points in the declaration were—

• Integrate culture within all development policies and programmes
• Mobilize culture and mutual understanding to foster peace and reconciliation
• Ensure cultural rights for all to promote inclusive social development
• Leverage culture for poverty reduction and inclusive economic development
• Build on culture to promote environmental sustainability
• Strengthen resilience to disasters and combat climate change through culture
• Value, safeguard and transmit culture to future generations
• Harness culture as a resource for achieving sustainable urban development and management
• Capitalize on culture to foster innovative and sustainable models of cooperation
  
  ICCS set its aims and objectives based on these evolving issues as follows –
  

1. To provide a platform to the Elders of the Ancient Traditions to come together and discuss the respective traditions, exchange ideas & thoughts.
2. To explore the possible similarities between these traditions.
3. To create a positive image of these traditions, have extensive collaboration within the Elders and derive some commonalties, which will be useful to the humanity at large.
4. To encourage the possible transfer of the values of life and ways of life to the next generation of our respective traditions.
5. To exchange various ideas, experiments that are being conducted to preserve and propagate respective cultures and traditions and to enrich others by one’s own experiences and experiments.
6. To publish related books, literature, journals, giving positive approach to human life.
7. To organize conferences, seminars, symposia, lectures on ancient cultures and traditions, bring people of diverse backgrounds together to propagate positive values and ethos of life useful to understand the creation of the divine (nature, environment, plant and animal kingdom) and the humanity at large.
8. To revive and rejuvenate the ancient eco- friendly traditions and rituals to pass on to the future generations.
9. Audiovisual recording of the oral history of the surviving ancient traditions.
10. Revive the ancient and sacred locations and build monuments or reconstruct them to inspiration to the future generations.
    Ancient traditions and cultures of the world bring entirely holistic perspectives in various aspects of human life. ICCS refers to all the traditions and cultures which have existed for more than 2000 years as ancient traditions and cultures such as over 1000 cultures of Africa, over 500 Cultures of Native Americans and indigenous traditions of Australia (Aboriginals), New Zealand (Maoris) and Indigenous traditions present in different parts of the world including Asian countries. All these traditions think about total humanity and human being in totality. In some way all these traditions believed that there is a natural balance within the universe, and it is the duty of the human generations to nourish this balance within the universe. They refer to
11. Balance between Human beings and their families
12. Balance between Human being and environment
13. Balance between human beings and the divine creation
14. Balance between the living and non-living manifestations of the divinity.

Simple philosophy by our Native American relatives, “Treat the earth well: We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our future generations” is a great guideline for the environmental crisis face by the humanity. Similar wisdom is proclaimed by many of the elders worldwide who belong to different ancient traditions and cultures.

RIWATCH (Research Institute of World’s Ancient Traditions Cultures and Heritage) initiated by the International Centre for Cultural Studies (ICCS) USA is a leading and upcoming cultural research institute of Northeast India, based in Roing in Dibang Valley district of eastern Arunachal Pradesh. Established in 2009, it has been making remarkable contributions to promote culture with ecological sustainability and economic development by co-operating with research institutions, universities and community organisations of Arunachal Pradesh. It is a registered society under Societies Registration Act. It has a managing council with Arunachali experts and scholars, with a Fulbright Scholar as Executive Director. RIWATCH has created a unique ethnographic museum since 2017, the only people’s museum in the NE India. RIWATCH is located in serene environs of a 5 hectare campus, far from the maddening crowds in Khinjili village, 10 Kms off Roing town. It is also a qualitative facilitation centre for various universities to execute field studies in different disciplines related to ethnic life of the local communities. It offers M.A., M. Phil, and Ph.D. degrees in these specific fields. Since 2013, every alternative year, RIWATCH executes ‘Study Abroad Programme’ for the students of University of South Florida, Tampa, USA. Within a short span of 10 years, RIWATCH has number of research papers to its’credit. It hosts Regional Centre of Education in Sustainable Development, recognised by United Nation’s University, Institute of Advanced Studies. Many universities like Dibrugarh University Dibrugarh (Assam), Rajiv Gandhi University, Doimukh, (Arunachal Pradesh), University of South Florida, Tampa (USA) have academic collaborations with RIWATCH. A new species of ginger (Zingiberaceae) found in upper region of Dibang Valley has been named after RIWATCH as “Amomum riwatchii”. In its effort in empowering communities, RIWATCH was catalyst in getting a GI tag to Idu Mishmi textiles in the name of Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society.

Shiksha Valley School is a day cum boarding school in Dibrugarh with state-of-the-art facilities and exceptional learning environment which makes it one of the best in north-east India.

The ICCS and RIWATCH is organizing the 8th Triennial International Conference and Gathering of the World Elders in collaboration with and at the Shiksha Valley School Dibrugarh from January 28th to 1st February 2024