Building harmony in Chennai with Khudai Khidmatgar
On January 8, Social Harmony Federation celebrated their annual Harmony Gathering at Vinoba Hall in Chennai. Khudai Khidmatgar (which is known as Social Harmony Federation in South India) is a 21st-century revival of the earlier movement of the same name, which was founded in the 1920s by the “Frontier Gandhi” Badshah Khan and which espoused intercommunal unity and anti-colonial resistance. Khudai Khidmatgar’s national convener, Faisal Khan, currently serves on HfHR’s advisory board.
Over 240 people attended this celebration of peace, harmony, and communal coexistence, which included video messages from SHF’s many Foreign Delegates from around the world—including HfHR’s own Executive Director Sunita Viswanath! See Sunita’s video remarks below:
Other parts of the program for this event included singing, dancing, and silambattam (traditional South Indian martial art) performances by local schoolchildren. In addition, a series of sessions were held on topics ranging from the need for harmony-focused education to the relationship between communal harmony and environmental protection.
Following these sessions, Dr. N. Ezhilan of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and Rev. Fr. Dr. Christu Rajamony announced the formation of the Constitution Study Club, to “protect the Constitution and its values” in the face of rising threats to democratic governance in India. SHF announced plans to launch 50 chapters of the Constitution Study Club throughout Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala on the 26th of January.
Finally, the gathering awarded a series of awards to grassroots activists for their work in promoting communal harmony:
Dr. Jeevanandham Communal Harmony Award (Female): awarded to Dr. Anu Rathna (Senior Medical Resident, Govt. Hospital)
Dr. Jeevanandham Communal Harmony Award (Male): awarded to Shri. Ariwarasan (Parikshan Charitable Trust- Chennai)
Labour Rights Protector Award: awarded to R. Leelavathy (Secretary-Tamil Nadu Unorganised Workers Federation- Chennai)
Women Saviour Award: awarded to B. Kamala ( resident- Pennurimai Iyakkam- Chennai)
Harmony Women Award: awarded to Fareetha Isack (Campaign Social Welfare Trust- Puducherry)
Tribals Saviour Award: awarded to Anees Kumar (took initiative in October 2021 and mobilized the Kadar Tribals in Coimbatore District through nonviolent struggle and succeeded in their demands)
Harmony Publication Award: awarded to Iyalvagai Publication (Publishes materials related to Harmony building, based at Perambalur)
Dr. Nammazhvar Young Organic Farmer Award: awarded to Nithiyanandan (for promoting the concept of Organic and Cooperative farming among Youths in Tamil Nadu- Nagapattinam)
In addition, the event organizers distributed copies of HfHR’s beautiful 2022 Progressive Calendar!
This was an extremely powerful event, and HfHR is honored to have played a small part in it—even from the other side of the world.