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https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2023/0906/How-a-Buddhist-inspired-high-school-is-boosting-Hungary-s-Roma>
"Classes begin with a gong, not a bell, at the Dr. Ambedkar School.
Each morning, 125 students in grades nine through 12, all from the local Romani
community, enter the school grounds beneath a brass plaque embossed in both
Hungarian and Hindi. The text marks the life of the school’s namesake, Bhimrao
Ramji Ambedkar, India’s first post-independence minister for law and justice.
The inscription finishes by invoking the school’s religious mission: “[Dr.
Ambedkar] is a Buddhist saint,” it reads.
Dr. Ambedkar never set foot in Hungary, much less in the provincial
northwestern city of Miskolc where the school was established in 2006. But
members of Hungary’s Roma community learned about Dr. Ambedkar’s transformative
work, in which he helped outlaw India’s caste system last century and improved
the lives of his fellow Dalits in India. And they recognized a kindred spirit.
The Dr. Ambedkar School is working to empower intellectual and political
leaders from within Hungary’s Roma community, based on the Indian social
reformer’s example. And while his neo-Buddhist worldview may seem like an odd
bedfellow for Roma activism, the two are finding remarkable synchronicity among
the school’s students.
“The role of the school is more than that of an educational institution, but
rather a community institution that treats students with respect and dignity,
providing a sense of hope and respect to Roma who are otherwise treated as
outcasts by the mainstream society,” says Jekatyerina Dunajeva, a political
scientist with Central European University’s Romani Studies Program. “What
permeates the culture of the school is a keen awareness of justice, fairness,
and opposition to oppression.”"
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
