AHIMSA CENTER

In 2004 a historic event took place at State Polytechnic University, Pomona: the launch of the Ahimsa Center, founded by Tara Sethia, Professor of History at Pomona.

On one level this new center represents a gift from the Jain community to the world at large, of the core value and achievement of the Jain religion and culture, which is the value and path of Ahimsa. Ahimsa is defined on the Center’s website as nonviolence rooted in courage and compassion, fearlessness and forgiveness.

The birth of this new center can also be seen as a marker of a profound historical shift in which we are participating. In his opening remarks, Dr. Thomas Morales, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Pomona, spoke with conviction of the importance of placing the study of nonviolence squarely in the mainstream of the general university curriculum.

The Dalai Lama Foundation collaborates with the Ahimsa Center to hasten the day when education for nonviolence is as much a part of the core curriculum as reading, writing or math.

Participants in Ahimsa Center Launch

Below is a partial list of the leaders and educators who spoke at the inaugural conference for the Ahimsa Center at Cal State Pomona, May 14-15, 2004.

Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne is the founder and President of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka. Sarvodaya is one of the most successful self-help organizations in the world, linking the Buddhist principles of loving kindness, compassion, the joy of living derived from making others happy, and equanimity, with concrete grass-roots work that addresses the needs of the rural population. For almost two decades Dr. Ariyaratne has led large groups in meditation for peace in communities who have suffered from the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka.

David Chappell authored and edited a number of books, including: Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace, Unity in Diversity: Hawaii’s Buddhist Communities, He was the founding editor of the academic journal, Buddhist-Christian Studies. At the time of the Ahimsa Center launch, he was Professor of Comparative Religion at the Soka University of America, in Aliso Viejo, California.

Peggy Dobreer is the Director of School Programs and Curriculum Development for the Center for the Advancement of Nonviolence. This organization is publishing a new addition of their curriculum guide, 64 Ways to Practice Nonviolence: Curriculum and Resource Guide.

Jack DuVall is the President of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, Washington, D.C., and the co-author of A Force More Powerful, the authoritative work on the history and success of nonviolent movements in the 20th century. His mission is to educate people all over the world on how to promote social change through the deliberate practice of nonviolence.

Mary Elizabeth King is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, University for Peace in Costa Rica. As a student, King worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (no relation), in the student wing of the U.S. civil rights movement. She was one of what the New York Times called “a tiny handful” of white, female “heroic, unsung organizers of the Southern civil rights movement.” During the Carter Administration, King had world-wide responsibility for the Peace Corps, then in sixty countries. In the years since, she has acted as a special adviser to former President Jimmy Carter on the Middle East.

Shabbir Mansuri is the founding director of the Council on Islamic Education. Shabbir has been working with the State of California for almost 20 years on how world religions are presented in textbooks and taught in schools, basing his approach on the American values of the constitution and pluralism.

D. R. Mehta is the Founder of The Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), Mr. Mehta is former Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India, Governor of Reserve Bank, and Director General of Foreign Trade. He founded the BMVSS in 1975 to provide poor people with artificial limbs. Every person who shows up at the door is supplied with food, housing, fitted with a custom limb, and fare home, at no charge. BMVSS invented and pioneered the Jaipur foot, which spread outside India during the Afghan war in the late 1970’s. Faced with thousands of injuries caused by Russian landmines, the International Committee of the Red Cross discovered that the Jaipur foot was the hardiest limb for the mountainous Afghan terrain. Since then countless land-mine victims in many countries have been fitted with the Jaipur foot. Today the BMVSS has become the largest supplier and fitter of artificial limbs in the world.

Glenn D. Paige is founder and President of the Center for Global Nonviolence in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dr. Page’s book Nonkilling Global Political Science has been translated into 20 languages, and is being taught in schools and government institutions in various countries. The Center makes this book and other publications on nonviolence available for downloading at their website.

Jagdish N. Sheth is Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta. Sheth Professor Sheth has published more than 200 books and research papers in different areas of marketing, and is a prominent researcher, writer and speaker on values in the field of Marketing.