Influenced greatly by Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and others, a young and idealistic Dr Jagdish Gandhi ventured in 1959 to create a new mindset through education. With just five children on roll, no personal wealth, and the equivalent of ten US dollars in borrowed capital, the motivated Dr Gandhi began his own personal experiment in Lucknow, India, some fifty years ago in the name of City Montessori School. He saw this as more powerful a vehicle to prevent conflicts than working with negotiations and top-down policies alone. To do this, he gave up his own active role and successful career in politics, serving at the time as elected and popular member of the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state of India. Today, at the age of 75, Dr Gandhi has no regrets. He works with the same undiminished zeal towards multiplying his mission for peace through education. In the past 50 years, he has not taken a single day off. He has slept little and has worked through every weekend and holiday. He has rarely had the resources to do his expanded programmes, and although the journey has by no means been easy, the citizens of Lucknow have greatly endorsed Dr Gandhi’s mission and values. Their support has made CMS the world’s largest school with over 37,000 students on its roll this year (a Guinness World Record for the largest school in the world held by CMS since 1999). Instead of resting on his glories, this recognition has meant that Dr Gandhi has gained momentum towards his goal. And, despite the fact that his institution is now the world’s largest school, Dr Gandhi lives simply in the same room in which he began his work for peace in 1959, and he has chosen to have no personal wealth of his own, spending instead all his created resources on his mission. Children are the world’s future. Dr Jagdish Gandhi believes the best way to mould the future is to nurture it. Persuaded by the UNESCO Constitution that wars begin in the minds of men, Dr Gandhi felt it best to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men through education and by nurturing young minds.

Against prevalent norms that focus on narrow nationalism, his school adopted the clarion call of ‘Jai Jagat’ – ‘Hail the World’, not ‘Jai Hind’ – ‘Hail India’, the prevalent greeting. He vowed to create through education world citizens endowed with a global mindset who cannot imagine conflict and war, and who become, in addition, proactive agents of unity in the world. Using a multi-pronged approach and inspired by the vision to make school a lighthouse of society, he began to educate not only the children but also parents and society at large. As a result, all began to witness the remarkable benefits of such a comprehensive approach on their children’s mindset. Parents and the population at large began to buy into his ideas on education for unity, as he firmly believes peace is a by-product of unity. Initially, parents would object to such programmes as the All Religions Prayer in which children recite prayers on the same platform from all scriptures, along with messages of unity of religions. Gradually, parents began to see these as important in today’s conflict-ridden world. Lucknow itself has seen many conflicts based on religion, for example, between Shia and Sunni Muslims and between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims.

Against this backdrop, the training provided by CMS to its children has served as the perfect antidote to the crises, the impact of which is clear over time. For example, in December 1992, when the Babri Masjid (mosque) was demolished by Hindu fundamentalists in Ayodhya, a city close to Lucknow, there were killings throughout India, and especially in the State of Uttar Pradesh of which Lucknow is the Capital. Even with skeletal presence of police force in Lucknow – majority of which was diverted to Ayodhya – the city of Lucknow escaped violence. As many eyewitnesses have documented, the relative peace and calm in Lucknow has been credited to the enduring impact of CMS education on the city of Lucknow and to their proactive role in conflict prevention and containment. For example, thousands of students of CMS and their parents braved the tense atmosphere in the city and went in convoys and processions singing songs of unity and carrying banners with slogans such as: “We Should Live in Unity,” “The Name of God is Both Muslim and Hindu,” “God Is One, Mankind is One,” etc., which melted the hearts of many extremists. (European Centre for Conflict Prevention, 1999 and 2005, and Oxford Research Group, 2001).

 At the macro level, leveraging the fact that CMS is the world’s largest single school, Dr Jagdish Gandhi has crafted meaningful initiatives to create a wider set of circumstances for peace and conflict prevention at the local, national, regional and international levels. These include, among others:

·                  a bold Indo-Pak children’s friendship initiative which has created better trust between children and teenagers even when tensions have been high between the two neighbouring countries. Thousands of children and teenagers on both sides of the border have been brought together by one-to-one contact through pen-friendship and further by facilitating visits between children of the two countries for sports and other activities organized by CMS.

·                  27 international events organized annually for the past three decades that have brought together children and teenagers from all corners of India and the globe, to assemble on one platform and experience through cross-cultural interaction, discourse, living together and experience, even as the children compete with each other in mathematics, computers, robotics, astronomy, music, the arts and more,

·                  an extensive media campaign through radio and cable television with a daily telecast of world unity and coexistence messages conveyed in an effective format using children as the common denominator; and,

·                  the initiation and continuation of nine unique and unprecedented International Conferences of the Chief Justices of the World, influenced by which the chief justices in many countries have become more proactive on these very issues.

Dr Gandhi has gone beyond the confines of his school and the city, to seek other avenues that address the wider issues surrounding the safety of children worldwide. He has written to the UN, the world’s leadership and countless others, raising awareness for the need to create a world safe for children.Dr Jagdish Gandhi has, in addition, challenged the world’s judiciary and invited them to come together and deliberate on these issues. Commenced in 2001, CMS just concluded its 9^th International Conference of the Chief Justices of the World, bringing together representatives of judiciary through this period from over seventy countries. This would be an incredible achievement for any government to organise, let alone for a school in Lucknow, India. As a result of his consistent and relentless effort, CMS has become known for its world unity education and the motto of Jai Jagat – Hail the World – has reached far corners of the world, for example, as mentioned in the citation which accompanied the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education CMS received in 2002 (becoming quite surprisingly, the world’s first school to receive such recognition in the Awards’ history). As a result of this award, many countless individuals and schools worldwide have become more committed to the goals of peace education and a school has become a model to the world on how to build these very ‘defenses of peace in the minds of men’, so that children worldwide may be inoculated forever from thoughts of communal and religious hate and conflict, and who from the earliest childhood may consider everyone as a brother or a sister.

A visionary and a far-sighted person, Jagdish Gandhi has been building bridges of peace across the globe for nearly 50 years. Jagdish Gandhi believes in the innate goodness of every living being. He is an educationist like no other. His approach to problems which seem insurmountable is simple but effective. His every action is guided by a very strong sense of divinity and spirituality and hence his every effort is arrived at improving the self and realizing the presence of the Almighty. Dr Jagdish Gandhi, through his noble deeds and conduct, has always demonstrated the trust he has placed in people, displaying that human generosity that opens up the mind and heart and so often leads to the accomplishments of major achievements at the very frontiers of what is possible.

Dr Jagdish Gandhi speaks regularly on several international and national TV channels like Aastha TV, Zee Jagran, CMS Local Channel and Sadhna TV channel. His spiritual talks are viewed by millions of his fans who stay glued to the television to hear him.

Dr Jagdish Gandhi is the author of six books and his articles on spiritual education have been regularly featured in the prominent dailies like The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Pioneer and The Rashtriya Sahara.

1)      1) Atma ka Paramatma se Milan (The Unison of Human Soul with the Soul of God): The book highlights various stages of spiritual development on the pathway of human journey. It elaborates that the true purpose of our lives is to know God and to worship Him. The book is in Hindi language.

2) Vasudha ek Kutumbh (Earth is One Family): The book is based on the ancient Indian philosophy of Vasudhaiv Kutumbhkam and the vision of Baha’u’llah that ‘The Earth is but One Country’. The book has several articles based on the speeches of Dr Gandhi which narrate that we are all creation of One God and Earth is our united home. The book is in Hindi language.

3)       3) Chintan (Meditation): The book is in Hindi language.

4)      4) Siksha Parmo Dharma (Education-the Greatest Religion): The book is in Hindi language. Siksha Parmo Dharam (Educatioin: Greatest Service) The book highlights the fact that :- "Amongst the greatest of all the great services that can be possibly rendered to mankind is the education of Children". It emphasizes that the first and only religion of mankind should be Education. This book enlightens the importance of education and school in being the 'Light House of the Society'

5) Samadhan (Solution): The book is in Hindi language. The book revolves around the philosophy of "Earth is but one country and mankind its citizen". It highlights the ill's that prevail on the planet due to diversity and division of mankind in the name of faith

6) Vishva Parivar Hamara Hai (Whole world is our family):  The book is in Hindi language. The book revolves around the philosophy of "Earth is but one country and mankind its citizen". It highlights the ill's that prevail on the planet due to diversity and division of mankind in the name of faith.

Dr Jagdish Gandhi has been invited by many renowned institutions like Bhrama Kumari University , Mount Abu, Symboises Institute of Management, Pune, Karorimal Collage, The Jubilee School By King Hussain Foundation, Jordan, Club of Lucknow, IMRT Lucknow etc.

A widely traveled man, Dr Gandhi has visited a number of countries including USA, UK, USSR, Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Thailand, Norway, Mauritius, Malaysia, Lebanon, Japan, Italy, Israel, Iran, Hong Kong, Holland, Germany, France, Egypt, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Myanmar, Belgium and Afghanistan. Among the many international conferences he has attended are the following: Third International Conference on Higher Education, Lancaster University, UK; the Seventh Triennial Conference of CISV at Leeds, England; the First World Conference on Gifted Children, London; International Teachers Conference, Nottingham University, UK; International Teaching Conference at Hong Kong; Cultural Conflict and Asian Community in UK at Leicester University; International Teaching Conference at Paris; Youth For Mankind Conference at Chicago, USA and International Teaching Conference at Haifa, Israel. Dr Gandhi also attended the Anthropological Congress at Chicago, USA and was interviewed for an hour by American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio in California on his multifarious achievements and successes in the field of education.

·         participated in the United Nations General Assembly hearings, UN Headquarters in New York in June 2005.

·         was invited by the United Nations to the Millennium Forum held at UN headquarters at New York from 22nd to 26th May, 2000.

·         was invited by Peace Edirect and Keighley Foundation to tour UK (17-24 October 2004) and speak to communities in pleaces that have witnessed racial violence in recent years.

·         presented keynote address at 5th Convention on Students Quality Control Circles (ICSQCC 2002) at Georgetown, Kentucky, USA from June 11 to 13, 2002

·         was invited by the UNESCAP to address a U.N. Conference at Bangkok, Thailand on 20th September 2002

·         was invited as Chief Guest in Mauritius at National Convention on Quality Circles in Education held from September 26-30, 2002

·         was invited by the Goi Peace Foundation of Japan to address a Peace Symposium as Guest Speaker at Tokyo, Japan on 18th November 2002

·         was invited to the International Convention on Quality Control Circles at Taiwan, Taipei.
* participated in International Conference of International School-to-School Experience (ISSE) at San Francisco, USA 1996 

A Visionary and Educationist, Dr Gandhi has been working tirelessly for the cause of education, unity and peace for the last 5 decades. Recipient of many awards and honours, Dr Gandhi’s tireless efforts were once again rewarded in the form of an Honorary Doctorate Degree that will be awarded to him by the Bakshir State Pedagogical University (BSPU), Ufa, Russia. In a letter addressed to Dr Gandhi the Rector of the University of Bakshir State Pedagogical University (BSPU), Ufa, Russia, said “We take great pleasure in informing you that the Board Members of Bakshir State Pedagogical University (BSPU), Ufa, Russia have unanimously decided to honour you with the Honorary Doctorate Degree considering the fact that you have devoted 50 long years to the service of society and humanity at large in the field of education and building a world fit for children and generations yet-to-be-born.”

Dr Gandhi has been awarded numerous awards like

• UNESCO Prize For Peace Education-2002
• Key to the City of Georgetown
• Certificate of Guinness World Records
• The Derozio Award
• Friend of Young Physicists
• 2004 Nuclear-Free Future Special Recognition Award
• Change makers Innovation Award 2005
• Quality Pioneer Award
• UP Ratan Award
• Waaris Ali Shah Award For Communal Harmony
• Verdlaun Excellence Awards 2003
• Bhartiya Awam Society UP
• Outstanding Achievement Award by IMRT Business School

At a very young age of 23 years Dr Jagdish Gandhi establish a school (CMS) in 1959 to provide 'Jai-Jagat' based quality education to children, with only 5 students. For the past five decades (Since 1959), City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow, India, an exclusively school, is setting new standards in the education of children in the 21st century. It is the world’s largest city-school as per the Guinness Book of World Records, with 20 campuses in the city of Lucknow. It caters to the education of over 37,000 students from Montessori to Classes X and XII (ICSE & ISC Boards. It is the only school to be the recipient of the coveted UNESCO Prize for peace Education in the year 2002. 

Dr Jagdish Gandhi has been actively involved in bringing changes in the society. He has launched numerous projects for bringing change in the society. Some of his projects are as follows:

1. Call for Enforceable International Law and empowerment of International Court of Justice
2. International Conferences of Chief Justices of the World
3. Guardian of world's two billion children
4. Aao Dosti Karein (Come, let us be friends!)
5. Children's World Parliament
6. World Citizen Dress
7. World Unity Satsang (World Unity Congregation)
8. A separate Department to teach world unity and peace
9. Peace Poles
10. World Peace Satsang
11. Tableau for Unity and Peace