Greetings of peace from India. This year we have initiated a new campaign to understand the challenges that our Cooperation Circles face in the community. So with "Voice of the Month," every month we will interview a CC to speak about what they find to be the most critical issue to address as an all-time challenge.
This month we have a voice from Srijani CC from Kolkata, West Bengal.
Economical differences are the biggest challenge for interfaith cooperation in countries like India.
Most of the common households in India are very practical; they are very judgmental in making a difference according to the economical strength (status) of a person or family. People are very impressed by amenities, so between the two persons from two different faiths if there is an economical (class) difference, it becomes an additional challenge for a CC to bridge interfaith cooperation.
We feel that there needs to be a more spiritual approach and practice where people can understand the work of peacebuilding. Our basic challenge is not getting people but to have people understand the values of interfaith cooperation and the importance of interfaith bridge building.
Most of the time we focus on organizational strategies to expand and create techniques, adopting a new idea of growth, but similar efforts and strength must be given to help common grassroots people to understand the value of interfaith relation and cooperation.
We need to focus to draw attention and align our life with an understanding of how long-term happiness comes from interfaith, intercultural cooperation, whereas amenities only give us short-term comfort.
- Mrs. Mallika Gupta, Member Srijani CC, Kolkata
