https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2022/01/lenin-shruti-pvchr-human-rights-nobel-peace/

Benaras Based LENIN, SHRUTI & PVCHR APPROPRIATE FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, 2022

By Tarun Kanti Bose

Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi and Shruti Nagvanshi, who lead People’s Vigilance Committee for Human Rights (PVCHR) have been confronting and building campaigns against hegemonic masculinity in all its forms and its link to the patriarchy and caste system associated with Indian society.

Academicians, intellectuals and activists have come forward to nominate Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi, Shruti Nagvanshi and PVCHR for Nobel Peace Prize for 2022. While writing for online nomination to the Chairperson and jury members of Norwegian Nobel Committee, Dr Vinod Kumar Singh, Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramoday University (MGCGV) emphatically puts forth, “Nomination of Lenin, Shruti and PVCHR shall promote Nobel’s idea of a peaceful world order, above all through global cooperation on disarmament, international law and strong international institutions, and further mindful that patriarchal/masculinist and militarist traditions are important in keeping the world locked in a war system instead of the co-operative peace culture. I strongly nominate for their efforts to combat masculinity driven militarist traditions, for their contribution to bettering conditions for peace in world and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of masculinity driven militarist traditions as a weapon of war and conflict.”

The People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) was founded by Lenin and his wife, Shruti Nagvanshi, in 1996 as an inclusive social movement that challenges patriarchy and caste in India and advocates for marginalized section of the Indian society. By embracing neo-Dalit approach, PVCHR brings together Indians of all backgrounds, including Dalits and Adivasis in order to dismantle caste and promote diversity. Now PVCHR has 72,000 members working against caste discrimination across 5 states. 

Lenin and Shruti believe that eliminating corporate fascism, sectarianism, and conflict based on hegemonic masculinity, and war is a major precondition to creating a better world. Raghuvanshi called for establishing a Neo-Dalit movement in 2011 to end the caste system. In South Asia, this innovative approach to conflict resolution ends the use of patriarchy and caste as causes of war, fascism and armed conflict based on hegemonic masculinity.

Putting their personal safety at risk, Lenin and Shruti have courageously fought fascism. Through the application of international law, they have sought justice for the victims, bringing about the fraternity of nations. Lenin correctly says, “Human security built on inclusiveness and justice is one of the main factors for stable peace built on resilience and humane relationships.”

Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi believes that inclusiveness and justice are important factors for building sustainable peace based on continuity and humane relations. It is certain that their work will strengthen the cause of human dignity in India, which is the second-most populous country in the world and has one of the world’s largest economies. A stable, peaceful and prosperous India will have many positive side effects, and will strengthen fraternity among nations and people in the region, a great step towards a better and more peaceful world.

Lenin and Shruti are symbol of non-violence resistance for millions of dalits fighting for their dignity in India. As a result of  their endeavour efforts, Lenin and Shruti have  changed the discourse on ‘Dalit Politics in India’ and brought into focus an innovative “people-centric” approach based on justice, diversity, inclusiveness, and pluralism aimed at restoring “human dignity” to the deprived sections of Indian society.

Early experiences taught them confrontation was dangerous and ineffective as an emancipatory tool. The greater Lenin and Shruti understood that caste played a role in all kinds of conflict and, therefore, envisioned a movement that could break the closed, feudal hierarchies in conservative slums and villages by building up local institutions and supporting them with a high-profile and active human rights network.

 

Self-taught Dalit ideologue, Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi knew from the beginning that India’s villages are the cradle of oppression and exploitation. Instead of tampering with symptoms, ‘caste’ ought to be tackled at both ends. His innovative advocacy forced the ‘state’ to reconfigure its mechanisms for delivering social justice in a manner where justice is not only done but perceived to be done on the one hand, and his democratized structure gave access to the ‘voiceless’ to the constitutional guarantees of modern India on the other.

Lenin’s work and Shruti’s closer association promotes inclusion and basic rights for all in a country as diverse and vast as India is complex, but essential. Both of their diverse endeavours are driven by their belief that every life has intrinsic value, and no case is too small. Both of them strive for the inclusion of disenfranchised people in India as well as for the country they love, doing all they can ensure that its diversity rather than tearing it apart will strengthen it. India is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, and is on its way to becoming the world’s most populous country. India is incredibly diverse across religion, language, caste and tribe. Nearly 80 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people are Hindus, but there are also millions of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains. In India, the caste system is a social hierarchy dating back some 2,000 years that categorizes Hindus at birth, and dictates their place in society.

Dalits (“untouchables”) and Adivasis, who make up nearly a quarter of the Indian population, are at the bottom of the hierarchy. Considered as outcast from society as relegated to the nought, Dalits and Adivasis face social and economic marginalization. Although India’s Constitution recognizes group-differentiated rights, the country has seen a growing climate of intolerance in recent years, fuelled by the rise of right-wing nationalism.

In 2022, Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi and Ms Shruti Nagvanshi, founders of PVCHR, as nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, in particular, for their initiative to end the use of patriarchy and caste system as the source of war, fascism, and armed conflict within South Asia. RSS, Hindutva Fascist force and Islamic terrorism are one of process of militarization and war-conflict in South Asia. Nomination is also meant to recognise all the stakeholders working for peace and reconciliation in India and South Asia.

#Dalit #NobelPeacePrize #NeoDalit