A few years ago, like many other Indians, I began to worry about India – not just the India that we know, but the India that we actively wish to create for, and with, our children. As recently as a few months ago, we heard and saw the heartbreaking incident of a Muslim child in a classroom in Muzaffarnagar being physically abused by his teacher and peers. Something about seeing such unrestricted violence, hatred, and intolerance in a classroom – a classroom of 7- year-olds – felt so deeply personal.
This led me down a path of trying to discover India for myself. I spent many months compiling the “India & I” curriculum, which are open source lesson plans for children to practice the ideals enshrined in our Constitution. In parallel, I went on a personal journey with 23 students, exploring the question, “What is India?” That journey culminated in a musical, now a movie, called The Conference of the Birds. And along that journey, I discovered an important truth.
That there is an “I” in the letters of I-N-D-I-A, but more significantly, when you rearrange the letters to I-AND-I, you find an “and” in India. India is for me, and India is for you.
And even as I continue to think about what kind of India our children will create, what version of history they will read about, and whether they will grow up learning to love, or to hate – I also believe, more strongly than ever before, in the power that lies in our classrooms.
Democracy, and our nation, is built in our classrooms.
Over many decades, we seem to have forgotten the purpose and function of our schools, and by extension, of education. We’ve made school all about achievement and ticking the right boxes, instead of making school all about learning. Learning, that can spark joy, curiosity and imagination. Learning, that can ensure that every child is able to be successful, and is free to define their own kind of success.
The purpose of school can be so much more. School can be about learning to lead ourselves, others, India, and the world. It can be about our ability to understand, respect and elevate those around us. It can be about our understanding of Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity – and the role that each of us plays every single day in upholding the four ideals that our nation was founded upon.
I have seen what teachers are able to achieve with their children, when they are committed to this vision. Teachers like Neida, who taught her 2nd graders to empathise with the visually impaired by getting them to do their daily tasks, blindfolded. Teachers like Venil, who carried a newspaper to class every single day to ensure that her students knew what was happening in the world, and had an informed opinion. Teachers like Safdar, who showed his students that their voices and stories were equally important by creating a film with them.
Schools, and teachers, can help our children not just understand, but actually live the Constitutional Values of India. And in the process, schools can build leaders who wholeheartedly believe in the purpose of democracy, and actively work towards building, shaping, and practicing India’s democracy.
Our children need to be taught not just the ideas, but the practice of peace and love.
When I think about the values of Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, I also think of the kind of intention and belief system that one needs to hold to actually practice these values. And it is an intention that is rooted in the ideas of peace and love.
In the last few months, I have heard instances of children who refused to sit with each other, because they each followed different faiths. I have heard of classrooms where a child has fought with his best friend of many years, because of what he heard on the news. I have heard children question why some of them are treated differently.
But I have also heard of classrooms, where children of different faiths pray together. I have heard of classrooms where love, respect, and tolerance are core values that are simplified into small actions for children. I have seen teachers start the school day with compassion circles, and end with gratitude circles. I have seen teachers recognising the importance of using the right words and actions themselves, and setting an example of love for their children.
When I see Teach For India alums like Sagar and Mansi consistently build spaces, platforms, and institutions that encourage children to embrace and practice peace, or when Ragini uses the idea of “conflict cuisine” to bring children of diverse faiths and cultures together, or when Prakhar and Hemakshi launch the Indian School of Democracy to nurture the nation’s next generation of political leaders – I am reminded that while the work of building peace is vast, each one of us has the power to start a conversation with the children and the people in our world.
I have seen some of our best teachers start this difficult conversation with their children with a simple question – “What does peace mean to you?” And as children begin to relate the idea of peace with blue skies and flying white kites, I have seen teachers reinforce the belief that it is up to each one of us, to lead with peace and love.
Our students are our greatest partners, resource, and strength, in this mission.
I often feel like my biggest learning in over 33 years of listening to and working with children, is this – our children have limitless potential, and they are our strongest partners in this journey.
There are countless ways in which children can work with us in building and strengthening India’s practice of democracy. They can sit on school management committees and actively create policies that make every classroom, and every learning space truly democratic. They can co-create lesson plans with their teachers, to voice what they believe is actually relevant, meaningful, and contextualised to them. They can help nurture a classroom culture that is free of judgement and fear, and is instead full of love and acceptance.
We, at Teach For India, recently hosted a Peace Carnival in partnership with the Museum of Solutions in Mumbai. Together, with over 400 children and more than a hundred educators, we began to understand the reality of conflict in our world, and to imagine a world of peace and love. We shared and listened to stories of peace, recorded a peace anthem, created fraternity flags and a giant peace mandala, and connected on live Zoom calls with children and educators in Palestine, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Armenia, and Kashmir. We also paused, wrote over 300 letters of love and solidarity to children in each of these places and beyond, and visualised, with the deepest hope, a world that was kinder, safer, and more full of love, for children everywhere.
As we watched young, powerful children show empathy, curiosity, compassion, and courage through the day – as we watched them not just embrace peace, but actually embody and practice it – I was reminded, once again, of the need to listen to our children. And of their pure, unfiltered wisdom.
To build India, and our democracy, we need more leaders, and better leaders – who are committed to creating the India that is enshrined in our Constitution. When we begin to think of our students as our partners in this mission, we find 260 million children, who are leaders in their own right. Where it is possible to see overwhelming odds, we instead begin to see immense potential. And in I-N-D-I-A, we begin to see just how powerful the “and” can be.
If you are a teacher, an educator, or someone who works with children, I invite you to explore India with your children, using the India & I Studies – an open source curriculum with grade-wise lesson plans that help explore the Constitutional Values of India in your classroom.
Ms. Shaheen Mistri is the CEO and Founder Trustee of Teach For India. Her work for children over three decades has mobilised thousands of people to work together for systemic change in education, impacting millions of children.
Ms. Mistri has been an Ashoka Fellow, a Global Leader for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and an Asia Society 21 Leader. She has been a recipient of accolades such as the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Development and Welfare of Women and Children in 2019, the Beyond Business – ET Prime Women Leadership Award for 2020, Niti Aayaog’s Women Transforming India Award and the Ramachandra-Ikeda Award in 2022, to name a few. She is the author of the book, Redrawing India and the Miss Muglee children’s books.
