Neera Handa

Punhaarambh and the New Global Citizen

Through the concept of Punhaarambh, which means to start again, rewrite, or reinterpret, this concluding chapter examines how we need to reinterpret our understanding of what it is to be a global citizen, and how internationalised education needs to be rewritten to embrace sustainability in a concrete and applied fashion for both the highest and the common good. To encourage development of the new global citizenship, higher education embraces internationalisation as a product of transnational and transcultural knowledge exchange in which learners and educators are in dialogue, both in research, and in teaching and learning. The new global citizen will be informed and engaged, culturally competent, and committed to sustainability, to social justice as well as cultural (in all its senses) diversity, and to engagement with nature.

Sangam: A Confluence of Streams and Ideas

This chapter takes the potent cultural image of Sangam, which refers to the confluence of three holy rivers in India, as a symbol of the potential of a blending and convergence of ideas. I re-imagine internationalisation as a rich discourse of intellectual traditions, embracing—rather than attempting to dam themselves off from—the many challenges of the swelling imperative of sustainability. The possibilities of transnational knowledge exchange are to be found by situating non-Western international students as agents of internationalisation in relation to the largely ignored issue of lack of internationalisation of local, Western, Anglophone students and their educators.

Truth is Many in One

This chapter provides the conceptual framework for the transformative quality of knowledge to challenge the dominant discourses restricting freedom to form alternatives to capitalistic development. A passage about truth in the RigveD, which is one of the most ancient texts in the world, helps explain the paradox of “truth as knowledge”. Truth, while taking many forms, ultimately must be understood and owned by the knower as the one reality. The Indian concept of tri-vid helps to construct this theory of transformative knowledge. Emphasising the need to take the ownership of one’s knowledge to find truth, it presents knowledge as the truth of the knower, and not the passive consumption of someone else’s truth.

Karam YoGi: And the Highest Good

This chapter presents the concept of Karam YoG as the determined, dedicated, and selfless act to fulfil one’s duty. The message of Karam YoG from Bhagavad Gita, in spite of its religious significance, is understood to be one of the most applicable messages to humanity to lead a fulfiling active life both with worldly and with spiritual fulfilment. Fulfilment of one’s duty, in this framework of karam, speaks to the importance of individual agency, coupled with the moral obligation to act for the highest and the common good. The academics and students in teacher education, seen in the role of Karam YoGis, have a duty to work for the highest and the common good in a sustainable global society.

Da Da Da: The Educational Imperative of Self-Control, Generosity and Compassion

This chapter draws on a traditional Indian story to enrich a logical argument for transformative education. In this Upanishadic story, the tripartite commands of thunder (Da, Da, Da) convey the importance of self-control, generosity, and compassion—which, it is argued, have great potential application to a world placed on a truly sustainable footing. Through the prism of Da Da Da, a critique of the role of education is mounted as, despite its remit of bringing a transformation in graduates for the highest and the common good, education itself seems in need of a transformation.

One Dark Night of the Full Moon

The Introductory chapter starts with a reading of the story told in an Australian film, One Night the Moon, which illustrates the tragedy that ensues from monocultural ignorance and insularity. The consequences of a white Australian farmer’s refusal to recognise or engage with the expertise of Aboriginal Australians, as the frantic search for a lost girl unfolds, are tragic. Just as the Aboriginal Australian tradition has a deep understanding of the land that could allow the wider populace to live better in harmony with the land, so the wealth of cultural and philosophical traditions that flourished outside the modern Western world have potential to provide knowledge that would facilitate a richer and better balanced, sustainable engagement with the environment in the so-called first or the third world. Indeed, it has potential to alter our very understanding of the concept of knowledge.

Sarvodaya in an Internationalised Education for Sustainability

The Gandhian concept of Sarvodaya—meaning the uplifting of all—is a vision of a society wherein both the personal and the common uplifting speak to the duty of bringing equality, and social and environmental justice in the world. Standing on the pillars of truth, non-violence, self-determination, and equality, Sarvodaya challenges the neoliberal imperialistic discourse of dominance and inequity that entails a separation of nature and humanity. A tri-vid pedagogy inspired by such concepts builds students’ agency in questioning monumental givens in an unbalanced and unequal global society.

Om and Connectedness

In this chapter, I present a personal narrative to show how, through my own realisation of the significance of Om, and the theme of universal connectivity, I came to write this book. Om has become a commonplace symbol for meditative practices in the world, as its recitation aids in connecting to one’s inner, or higher, self. In addition, this sound of creation is also a practice of connecting to the universe. Om became an inspiration in calling for a knowledge that is dynamic, meditative, and connected to an understanding of how we must think, and live. It showed that in an interrelated organic echo-system that everything in this universe is part of, extending social justice and rights to nature is crucial for true human well-being.