WHY IS A SCHOOL ORGANISING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES OF CHIEF JUSTICES OF THE WORLD ON ARTICLE 51(c) OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA ?

CMS believes that ‘School is a building with four walls with tomorrow inside’ and the ‘Destiny of a man is shaped in the classroom’. CMS therefore upholds that school must provide meaningful education, spiritual direction and leadership to students, parents and the society and that a modern school must play a leadership role in concerning itself with the affairs of the age. CMS also believes that at certain moments in history education must also act as a powerful instrument of profound social transformation and that such a moment has now arrived. We firmly believe that a meaningful education must prepare a person to be concerned with the affairs of the age in which he is living. CMS believes that education is a continuous and a creative process. Its aim is to develop the capacities latent in human nature and to coordinate their expression for the enrichment and progress of society by equipping children with spiritual, moral and material knowledge.
CMS believes that the main reason for the weakening of the social fabric and the spreading of global unrest is the meaninglessness of education which has filled people with godlessness, ignorance, confusion and conflict. Therefore we believe that the purpose of today’s education should be the redemption of mankind from (i) its godlessness, (ii) its ignorance, (iii) its confusion and (iv) its conflict.

CMS also believes that human beings have three realities of life i.e. (i) material (ii) human and (iii) divine, and that only the balanced development of all the three realities of life can make a person a useful member of society.
CMS believes that school is a lighthouse of society and that every child is potentially the light of the world but at the same time he can also be the cause of its darkness, wherefore must the question of meaningful education be accounted as of primary importance. CMS believes that now the time has arrived when we must try to make every child both good and smart, a gift of God to mankind, a pride of the human race and a light of the world.

CMS believes that true education releases capacities, develops analytical abilities, confidence in oneself, will power and goal setting competencies and instils the vision that enables one to become a self motivated agent of social change, serving the best interests of the community. CMS believes that among the greatest of all the great services that can possibly be rendered by a human being to Almighty God is the education of children, building their character, making them spiritually aware and inculcating in their hearts the love of God. CMS believes that a child must be educated in such a way that he should learn not to busy himself only in his own concerns but is also inspired to fix his thoughts upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of men.

CMS was established 44 years ago, in 1959, with the above vision and mission and with the objective of making people spiritually aware and promoting world unity and world peace based on the ancient Indian philosophy of Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam i.e. ‘the whole world is but one family.’ Therefore for the School's motto, the founders, Mr and Mrs Gandhi, selected the words ‘Jai Jagat’ (Do good to whole world) which was coined by Mahatma Gandhi and propounded by his disciple Saint Vinoba Bhave. Consequently, CMS strives to teach every student the lofty ideals of oneness of God, unity of humankind, universal brotherhood, world unity and world peace, in addition to teaching of prescribed school syllabus. CMS considers school as a lighthouse of society. The parents of CMS students and the public of Lucknow city as well as people the world over have greatly appreciated the school's philosophy of ‘Jai Jagat’ and the school’s globalism-oriented approach to education and their support has helped CMS grow phenomenally, from only five students in 1959 to over 27,000 students on roll presently, becoming the world's largest school in a single city as recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records.

CMS is a distinctive school where the first period of 30 minutes is solely devoted to morning prayers, in which prayers of all religions are said on a common platform; its moral education books contain teachings from all major religions of the world and the children are taught universal values of oneness of God, unity of religions and oneness of humankind.
CMS organises 16 International events every year for students of primary to the higher secondary levels to provide international exposure to them so that they develop an international perspective and a global vision and become active agents of social transformation, promoting world unity and world peace.

Over the last ten years, thousands of children have come to CMS from different parts of India and abroad to participate in the various international educational events. During the course of interaction many children expressed apprehensions about their future, mostly on account of the enormous threat posed to the very life on our planet earth by the huge nuclear stockpile and also due to the catastrophic impact that human activities seem to be having on environment and ecology as reflected in climatic changes and global warming. It was this apprehension which inspired and motivated the CMS family to take up the cause of the world’s children, and generations yet unborn, to strive for international peace and security in order to safeguard the future of world's two billion children.

Having continuously worked with children for more than four decades, the CMS founder Mr and Mrs Gandhi have developed immense love and concern for the welfare, safety and security of children of the world, and therefore, they feel duty-bound to strive for the safety, security and welfare of world's two billion children. CMS believes that the children are the single most powerful common denominator for all the nations of the world and their safety and security are issues which no one can ignore and differ with.
In this connection, it is also pertinent to mention here (i) a letter received from Grenada written by two children and (ii) the judgement of Supreme Court of the Philippines.
(i) Children’s worry is expressed in a letter (printed on page 44) received from two brothers - Nathanael Daniel and Randy Daniel from Grenada (West Indies), dated 7th December 2001, who wrote “It is advisable further to protect our right to play, our right to rest, our right to be educated, our right to be loved, our right to eat, our right to live peacefully... Because of our numberless needs at our young age and because of our numberless demands when we get old, let us join hands together to plan the future. May your country (India) be the exemplary leader to open the paths to a wonderful and flourishing world."
(ii) Rights of children, minors and those yet unborn, to file a petition concerning their rights to a balanced and healthful ecology to sustain the health and life of minors has been upheld by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. quoted herein “This case, however, has a special and novel element. Petitioner minors assert that they represent their generation as well as generations yet unborn for others of their generation and for the succeeding generations to file a class suit. Their personality to sue on behalf of the succeeding generations can only be based on the concept of inter-generational responsibility insofar as the right to a balanced and healthful ecology is concerned.”

CMS TEACHES WORLD UNITY

People want fruits but if they don't plant trees how will fruits grow?
'World Peace' is a fruit that will grow on the tree of 'World Unity'. We must therefore try to unite the hearts of men on the Common Denominators of the entire humanity i.e. the children of the world born and yet to be born.
Here it would be pertinent to recall Article 51 of the Constitution of India which says:
Article 51: The state shall endeavour to:
(a) promote international peace and security;
(b) maintain just and honourable relations between nations;
(c) foster respect for international law; and
(d) encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration.

It should be noted that the Article 51 of the Constitution of India says the State ‘shall’ endeavour, it does not say that the state ‘may’ or ‘should,’ implying that the State has to endeavour and that there is no choice in this regard. Moreover, the word ‘State’ denotes the government, and each and every citizen of India who owe an allegiance to the Constitution of India is covered by the definition of the state.
As the world’s largest school recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records and as recipient of the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education 2002, the CMS family felt constitutionally bound to promote the spirit of Article 51 of the Constitution of India and to educate all about the same as also strive for promoting international peace and security and fostering respect for International Law.
However, the fact is that there is no international law existing in the world today that is equally applicable on all the countries and peoples of the world. What is generally referred to as ‘International Law’ are actually conventions and treaties between two or more countries and not duly enacted ‘International Law’. Moreover, a law that does not carry a penalty for its violation cannot be called a law at all. In this sense, today there is indeed no international law in the world in the absence of which there is total lawlessness as reflected in the increased instances of international terrorism and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction by various countries of the world for fear of their security. (There are nearly 36,000 nuclear bombs in the world: Russia 22,500, USA 12,070, France 500, China 450, UK 380, India 65 and Pakistan 25. Apart from the above, 80 countries in the world have stockpiled chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction).

A recent report of Washington-based Population Research Bureau states that over THREE MILLION children die every year due to pollution while another study by the National Geographic says that over 19,000 children die EVERY DAY due to starvation. Clearly, there is an urgent need for immediate action to safeguard the rights of world’s children.

Since ecology and environment all over the globe cannot be separated by national boundaries, we need to have ‘Enforceable International Law’ applicable and binding on all the countries and peoples of the world in order to ensure that coming generations inherit a safe and healthy ecology and a peaceful world.  Children are the most powerful common denominator for all nations to come together to the Peace Table in the right frame of mind for hammering out the necessary agreements for ensuring a peaceful world.

The hallmark of modern civilization is that it advocates, and is based upon, the rule of law. The world over, societies and communities are governed by written rules and regulations which are enforced and applied on all, without favour or prejudice. This is as true for Village and Town Councils and Municipal Corporations as for Provincial and National Governments. However, it is yet to become true for the International Comity of Nations, where the decisions of the UNO or its constituents like the General Assembly or the Security Council are not mandatory and countries may or may not abide by these!
Like its unmourned predecessor—the League of Nations— the United Nations has also failed to fulfil the objectives for which it was formed. In the five and a half decades of its existence, the UNO has seen more people die in numerous wars all over the world, than had died in both the world wars combined. The UNO also saw the nuclear countries build up massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons, said to be over 36,000 warheads strong. Moreover, 80 countries have also stockpiled chemical and biological weapons. The UNO has been a silent spectator to all this and more. In its half a century of existence, it has merely watched as three fourths of the earth’s tropical forest cover disappeared. Even though the UNO has many achievements to its credit, in the ultimate analysis, one has to admit that it has fallen far short of the expectations of its founding fathers, the basic need for a civilized society is peace and a safe future for children.

In order to foster respect for International Law we first need to have ‘International Law’ enacted by a duly constituted law-making body like a World Parliament which alone can have sanction to enact ‘International Law’ that can be equally applicable on all the peoples and countries of the world. Committed as it is for the unity of mankind in thought and action, CMS decided to launch a campaign to build public opinion in favour of world unity and world peace. It may be pointed out here that many great leaders and thinkers of the 20th Century, Albert Einstein, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Winston Churchill, Peter Ustinov, Robert Muller, Emery Reeves and Sri Aurobindo and many others have in their utterances, favoured a World Government