Rashtram School of Public Leadership nurtures ‘self-aware’ and ‘civilisationally-assured’ public leaders who are nourished by Indic knowledge traditions and systems of thought. The specific focus of the school is to prepare leaders in three domains: Academia, Politics, and Civil Society.
Rashtram designs and conducts executive learning programmes, engages in research to align institutions with Indic thought, fosters an ecosystem of young leaders in India and abroad, and strategically partners with organisations across the world.
Our civilisation was built on the foundational insights into consciousness. A breath-taking grasp of integral unity birthed a culture that synthesised ideas, will, and action i.e. a fusion of Jnana Shakti, Ichha Shakti, and Kriya Shakti. This magnificent vision of oneness nurtured men and women of unsurpassed integrity who have bequeathed to us, the essence of timelessness – Sanatana.
Our aim is to carry this work forward. Having connected to the intellectuals, political leadership, and youth of the country through our work over the last six years, we have an authentic perspective on the potential that can be unlocked if these three Shaktis can be fused into a coherent whole.
We have resolved to be a medium to drive this coherence.
Reawakening India, elevating global consciousness.
Building consensus on the centrality of Indian civilisational identity to its stability & prosperity.
Creating self-aware and civilisationally-assured public leaders.
Guiding institutions to ground their missions in an Indian civilisational worldview, to be capable of engaging with global standards of excellence.
Integrality: Integral development of each individual is essential for progress of society.
Diversity: Uniformity is not a prerequisite for unity. Integral development encourages diversity.
Harmony: Efforts for development should strive for harmony within an individual & with all systems.
Identity: Our nation Bharata, is an ecosystem of individuals & institutions that reflects & facilitates integral development.
Our vision of Public leadership is rooted in the civilisational ideals of seva and tyaga, and aimed at uniting the jnana, ichcha and kriya skati towards Nation building. We guide and incubate the journey of selfless individuals, who go on to lead various systems and institutions inspired by the spirit of dharma—devoted to the all-round prosperity of our country.
At every turn, thinkers produced ideas that animated the imagination of the people and created hospitable conditions for change. These ideas produce ‘Identity’ that give a sense of purpose and meaning to people – This is the process through which a random collection of a people, become a Nation. In today’s world, this mandate of producing good ideas is given to academia.
Procedural justice is the vehicle that takes the ideas from the minds of a few to the hearts of many. It is this journey that confers legitimacy to the ideas and creates agency in people. Legitimizing right ideas through the creation of agency leads to ‘Stability’ – Guiding this journey and embedding nourishing ideas into the fabric of a Nation is the real job of Politics.
‘Prosperity’ is a function of the energy of people channelized into productive avenues. The mandate for the state should be to create the conditions for Stability in which people can exercise the natural human genius for enterprise and creativity. The lifeblood of Ideas around Identity and Stability needs to flow through the veins of the civil society to create prosperity.
Rashtram is an initiative by the young team at Vision India Foundation. In its five years of operations, VIF’s Fellowship Programme has trained and mentored 30+ young and aspiring public leaders of India. Center for Executive Education at VIF has curated innovative learning programmes in policy-making and governance, thereby initiating 1600+ students and professionals across India and the world in their journey to be connected to systems of governance. These individuals are successfully working as political or social consultants, researchers, and community workers, with organisations or in individual capacities.
In my journey in public life, I have realised the need of young talent doing research, community work, and politics. Producing leadership in these domains is laudable. In this context, VIF is transforming into Rashtram School of Public Leadership, which aims to be a world class institute to create future public leaders of India.
…Rashtram’s Accelerator Programme will become a medium for those young individuals who want to become public leaders. They will be mentored by educators, bureaucrats, politicians, and nation builders and many institutions with strategies that can help make this country more skilled, visionary and more politically aware.