The Indian campaign “Jai Jagat”, which means “One Planet, All People”, has organized a one-year global march for justice and peace.
The campaign has begun on October 2, 2019, the 150th birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Indian group is travelling a 14,000 km route from New Delhi to Geneva.
The Jai Jagat campaign is focusing on four pillars relating to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): eradication of poverty, social inclusion, climate justice and the nonviolent resolution of conflicts.
The multinational group is travelling through Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Italy before arriving in Switzerland.
They have already toured the Iranian provinces of Fars, Bushehr, Hormozgan, Kerman and Yazd. During a stay in Iran’s central city of Isfahan on February 22, the Jai Jagat members were hosted by ‘Hoorshid Ecotourism House of Artists’, located in east of the historical city.
The Indian campaign has decided to carry two symbolic dolls of eastern Isfahan, known as “Esfand Banoo” and “Gav-Chah”, as the messengers of peace in the march all the way to Switzerland.
In an interview with IRNA, Farzaneh Soleimani Neisiani, an art researcher trying to revive the intangible cultural heritage and symbols of eastern Isfahan, said Esfand Banoo and Gav-Chah have been already inscribed on the national list of cultural heritage.
Esfand Banoo is the symbol of woman and ground, while Gav-Chah represents a cow that was used in the past for hauling up water from the wells and helped the farmers irrigate the land, she explained.
Director of Hoorshid Ecotourism House of Artists said the two dolls have been chosen as the peace ambassadors of eastern Isfahan and have been given to the Jai Jagat peace group to be presented in different countries.
The Jai Jagat campaign was established in 2014, has around 25,000 members, and has contacts with 50 countries across the world, she noted, adding that four leaders of the multinational group in Iran’s southern and southwestern cities are going to travel to the northwestern city of Tabriz on foot.
Members of the presiding board of Jai Jagat and its executive officers stayed in Isfahan for two nights, and held meetings with the cultural figures, artists and environmental activists in the city, Soleimani noted.
According to Jai Jagat leader Rajagopal P. V., the peace and friendship campaign is being supported by the United Nations. “There are a lot of people in Geneva waiting to see the results of our work. Our purpose is to see what can be done for peace in various countries.”
He said the campaign is going to find new friends in the one-year march to Switzerland, and plans to establish stronger bonds for peace in the return to those countries.
The Iranian culture is celebrating the day of ‘Woman and Ground’ on Esfand 5 (February 24), Rajagopal P. V. noted, saying the message of such concept in the Persian culture is in perfect harmony with the motto of the Jai Jagat campaign.
“We believe that establishment of peace without consideration for woman and ground would be impossible. Women can be guardians of peace. Men have created wars, and maybe women can bring peace,” he added.
Rajagopal P. V. finally noted that the dolls represent the future, as the dove is the symbol of peace.
Jai Jagat is focusing on “peace for posterity’ and considers the dolls as the messengers of peace, he noted.
Yazd Can Send to World Message of Religious Coexistence
Rajagopal P. V., who has served as Vice Chairman of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, visited the Iranian city of Yazd to communicate Gandhi’s message of global peace.
However, after visiting the city, he told ISNA that Yazd is a global city with an exemplary coexistence of various religions, which can play a role in realization of global peace.
“As a city where followers of various religions are coexisting peacefully, Yazd has increased peace in the world. … Currently the followers of Zoroastrianism and Islam are having a peaceful coexistence; so Yazd can communicate the message of global peace to the entire world,” he noted.
Statue of Gandhi to Be Unveiled in Tehran
Parvaneh Amirian, the secretary of the peace campaign in Iran, says Jai Jagat will install a statue of Gandhi in front of Tehran’s iconic Milad Tower following arrangements made with the Indian Embassy in Iran.
