ABOUT US
Build India Group (BIG), a Delhi-based civil society, focuses on building citizenry consciousness across the country with Article 51 A of the constitution dealing with fundamental duties as its foundation. It has a target to involve 30 crore school students and their parents.
The organization has proffered a very simple exercise, i.e. integrity building exercise, through a pledge drafted in 22 languages with uniformity in contents for promoting citizenry consciousness among the students across the country on an occasion called National Pledge Festival Day celebrated on the third Saturday of January every year. Many institutions have undertaken this exercise as per their convenient dates. Now this Pledge Festival is celebrated on November 26, the Constitution Day, each year.
The significance of November 26 is that on this day in 1949, the status of 35 crore people got transformed from being subjects in their respective kingdoms to that of sovereign owners of this country.
The Pledge
The pledge in English reads:
“We the people of India today do solemnly pledge ourselves to the service of our nation;
with honesty, sincerity and commitment always keeping our nation’s interest paramount
in all that we think do or say for the greater glory of this land”.
The exercise also includes students giving a written commitment in their mother tongue
that,
“We reject violence, we promise to keep our environment clean and tidy and we promise
to be good citizens”.
Pledges drafted in 22 languages — Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Manipuri, Santhali and Kashmiri besides English — are already in circulation across the country.
On the day of the Pledge Ceremony, students recite the pledge in their native language, in unison in a charged ambiance and affirm the handwritten pledge, appending their signatures on the document already signed by their parent. The exercise takes along with it various cultural activities i.e. dance, drama, songs, poster competitions, debates, tree planting, essay writing and collage making etc. on nationalism as the theme.
Our Vision
The health of a democracy depends primarily on the quality of its people. Cultivating good citizenry therefore becomes the cornerstone of a healthy and vibrant nation that takes pride in its democratic processes and systems. The Build India Group has been at the forefront of a movement to connect with students and youth to foster a “Nation First” approach as they are encouraged to think what they can do for the country rather than what the country can give them.
To expect citizens to perform well for the country, their health is also equally important. It is because “citizen’s health is country’s wealth”. This has also been part of our campaign.
Our Journey
The journey of Build India Group began in 2006 with the objective of creating a tool to foster emotional integration among the citizens of this country, so that the nation’s interest remains paramount in our thoughts, words, and actions. We believe that our first identity must be that of an Indian, above regional identities such as Bihari, Bengali, Kashmiri, or Punjabi. This experiment began in schools and, from the 3rd Saturday of January 2009, took the form of a festival known as the Pledge Festival.
Although the festival gained popularity, with hundreds of schools appreciating and adopting the idea, climatic conditions in the northern and northeastern parts of the country often proved unconducive during January. To make it a truly national festival—where all students across the country could pledge their love and loyalty to the nation at the same time—it was proposed in the 2012 programme that 26 November would be an ideal date for its observance. This date holds immense significance, as on 26 November 1949, the people of India were declared sovereign owners of their land with the adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly. The Constitution was drafted in accordance with the roadmap laid down out for the Constituent Assembly, which under the chairmanship of Dr B R Ambedkar was mandated to produce a draft of the Indian Constitution. For this the Objective Resolution dated 13th December 1946, was passed, by the Cabinet presided over by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first PM. The draft was completed by the members of the Constituent Assembly, in October 1949, ensuring that it conformed to the spirit of the of the directive principles laid out in the Objective Resolution. These directive principles are incorporated in the ‘Preamble’. The Preamble, is an integral part of the Constitution, and clearly stipulates that sovereignty—hitherto vested in rulers of the princely states and the British occupiers, was transferred to the common people of this country, once the Constitution was adopted on 26th November 1949. Thus, the Preamble became an ownership document, conferring equal rights upon all citizens and ushering in an epoch-making era. There is, therefore, a pressing need to make the people aware that, as owners of this great nation, they must discharge their duties to build, sustain, and lead India towards excellence. In November 2015, during the parliamentary debate to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, former lawmaker A. V. Swamy brought to the notice of the government the work of Build India Group in promoting awareness of Fundamental Duties among students across the country. Subsequently, in 2016, the Hon’ble Prime Minister constituted a Cabinet Committee comprising Ministers Jual Oram, Thawar Chand Gehlot, and Prakash Javadekar to decide the modalities for the celebration of 26 November from 2016 onwards. Since then, the nation has been celebrating Constitution Day, with Fundamental Duties as its central theme. In this journey, it is heartening to see that the pledge drafted in 22 languages has been adopted by several educational institutions as part of their morning prayers. This pledge, propounded by Build India Group, is simple, easy to remember, and can be recited by people of all sections in their mother tongue. It has also come to our notice that the pledge, in a standardized format, has found a place as wall hangings in several institutions and public spaces. Our goal is now clearly set: to make this pledge a part of prayer meetings in all educational institutions across the country. Encouragingly, no institution has said “no” to this idea—this is our greatest strength. The pledge, available in all languages, is secular and meaningful, and promotes emotional integration. As many educators have observed, it is perhaps the first initiative of its kind that complements the spirit of the Preamble. A pledge for the country, a prayer to foster emotional integration, and a powerful idea to promote Indianness among all Indians—this is a small step towards a big change. I hope you will, join this movement, and help together achieve this goal. Let all children of this country utter in unison that the nation comes first.Whilst good citizenry building remains the core activity, BIG is also working towards establishing an Institution of Politics, based in Odisha.
All efforts of BIG have so far been self-financed by its promoters.
Founder President, a journalist, author and advocate, Biraja Mahapatra charts out the journey of his idea, in this interview.