Women Building Peace
January 2011
Banner photo: Syria [© Bruno Morandi/Hemis/Corbis]
Peace Seminar in New Delhi
Dr. R. C. Gaur addressing the seminar [BSG]
A seminar based on SGI President Daisaku Ikeda's 2010 Peace Proposal, "Toward a New Era of Value Creation," was jointly organized by Bharat Soka Gakkai (BSG) and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) at the IGNCA Lecture Hall in New Delhi, India, on September 8.
The event commemorated the beginning of the Soka Gakkai's peace movement on September 8, 1957, when second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda issued his historic call for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons. In response to his mentor's vision, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda has been submitting annual Peace Proposals to the United Nations in January every year since 1983.
Mr. Ikeda's 2010 Peace Proposal identifies a dearth of humane values as the root of current problems in our now globalized society, and urges a fundamental transformation in human priorities based on the idea that a change in the destiny of a single individual can change the destiny of all humankind.
Distinguished speakers at the seminar included Mani Shankar Aiyar, Member of Parliament, Amar Nath Ram, former ambassador of India to the European Union, and Dr. Minoti Chatterjee, principal of Kamala Nehru College. More than 350 attended the seminar.
The evening began with a short film highlighting the essence of the 2010 Peace Proposal. In his welcome address, Dr. R. C. Gaur, head of Kala Nidhi Division of IGNCA, spoke about the Dr. Ikeda Corner on Culture of Peace that was created in IGNCA's library in 2007 and features works of influential peace activists with the aim of heightening awareness of pacifism and peaceful means to conflict resolution.
