Nonviolence for Our Times Student Voices
Far too often, when Cal Poly Pomona is talked about, the popular thought is something along the lines of; "Oh, that engineering school?" And yet, we know that Cal Poly Pomona is far more than just a school of engineers. In fact, we have a growing community dedicated to civic engagement and democratic thought. Now, a community has grown out of the Ahimsa Center in CLASS (a center dedicated to nonviolent political theory and practice) and its newly established Democracy Project, led by the Center's Director and Shri Shantinath Endowed Chair for Ahimsa Studies, Dr. Aishwary Kumar. Ahimsa in Sanskrit means a rejection of violence. To capture its power and scope, Dr. Kumar, a political theorist and historian of democratic thought who arrived last year from Stanford University, uses Ahimsa in his lectures as a philosophical acronym: A Humanistic Inquiry of Moral and Social Action or AHIMSA. At the heart of Ahimsa Center's academic and community initiatives is a commitment to excavating not only the complicated pasts but the soul of our democratic future.
As students of its growing community of scholars, we have witnessed the Ahimsa Center deepen our interest and commitment to a curriculum that speaks to our moment, a moment in which our democratic ethics have come to be linked with the blessings and risks of technological innovation and rapid environmental change. An active engagement with these political and planetary realities under Dr. Kumar's leadership has made the Ahimsa Center a national incubator of ideas about "democracy without violence." Across an array of courses, students are now given the chance to not only study institutions and ideals but cultivate skills that have helped us rethink the relationship between American civic life and student vision for our connected future. In that sense, Ahimsa has the capacity to broaden our polytechnic experience in a manner few among us had thought possible.
Case in Point: Ahimsa Center's freshly expanded interdisciplinary minor in Nonviolence Studies, dedicated to helping students integrate questions of social justice and civil rights with the global history and politics of civil resistance and nonviolent action. The Minor equips students to reframe the complex problems of inequality, identity, and conflict in a manner that is also aware of 21st century realities. There is now excitement about a Majors in Justice and Nonviolence, which we think would make Ahimsa a hub of civic and community engagement on our campus, thanks also to Dr. Kumar's popular democracy podcast.
Last Spring, the Ahimsa Center launched The Democracy Project, a dedicated initiative for constitutional, technological, and civil rights questions on our campus. It was the success of its opening conference that catalyzed student participation and demand for interdisciplinary engagement with civil and human rights and possibility of democratic nonviolence. It was also here, on this platform, that a new organization announced its arrival on campus. Students at the Ahimsa Center created an organization with the goal of regenerating discussions around democratic citizenship and a curriculum founded on ideas of civic and civil engagement: The Student Initiative for Justice (SIJ). This new group of students-led by faculty advisor, Dr. Aishwary Kumar is a trans-disciplinary organization committed to engaging the brightest, youngest minds on the most critical discussions and most decisive questions facing the institutions and ideals of our country.
The SIJ, part of Dr. Kumar's Student First Initiative, seeks to spark conversation, ideas, and action in the wake of the many social inequalities and prejudices that are seeping into and across our nation's campuses. We, the students, are screaming loudly into the waves of injustice that "we are here," and in the face of oppressive thought, "we belong, and we matter!"
Ahimsa Center is unique in California, and arguably in the country, for its fundamental ideal, which Dr. Kumar calls the Ahimsa Core. At its heart is a commitment to what he describes as "political nonviolence." Students have come to believe that there is an environment, a climate-and that this is the moment-on campus to think and speak how crucial it is for our generation to understand political violence and nonviolence for our common humanity and these ideas and ideals now have a space grow and be nurtured in a way that our campus has lacked for years. Ahimsa is back! And it has come back thanks to student involvement.
The Student Initiative for Justice at the Ahimsa Center represents a new wave of intellectual and activist excitement that has been unleashed in the student body. This Fall, over 120 students and faculty attended The Justice Dialogues curated at the Ahimsa Center in collaboration with the Office of Government and CCEP, in which Dr. Kumar along with history professor Dr. John Lloyd spoke about the close connection between nonviolent resistance, America's constitutional tradition, and our voting rights.
We invite more students to embrace critical thought in their education and to join a community that is committed to investigating the most critical issues about our common future. We are at a moment when we either become complicit in the destruction of our own progress or we reject historical amnesia and begin to build a rhetoric around our own morality. The Ahimsa Center and the Student Initiative for Justice stand in solidarity with a student body that is ready for change. We are eager to embrace visions that make our society truly exceptional: a commitment to civil rights and political hope. We invite all students to enrich our growing coalition on campus and to become a part of a unique polytechnic experience. Come visit us at the Ahimsa Center located in Building 1, Room 212. Join the Student Initiative for Justice, participate in The Justice Dialogues to create a more humane world, and attend our upcoming events. Our next event will be focused on Gaza and Humanism on November 30th at 3:30 pm (location still to be decided).
We look forward to hearing your voices and feeling your presence!
By The Student Initiative for Justice
