Mahatma Gandhi News Digest, Germany : Issue for December 11 – 17, 2006
Gap between rich and poor threatens world stability
The Record – Canada – by Andrew Hunt – December 16, 2006
Suppose you had $100 and a group of 10 people, and suppose you gave one person in the group $99 and let the other nine people share the remaining dollar. That is roughly how the wealth of the world is distributed, according to a recent study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research, an organization attached to the United Nations University, based in Helsinki, Finland.
The study concluded that two per cent of the world’s adult inhabitants control more than half of the Earth’s wealth, while the bottom 50 per cent of the global population possesses around one per cent of its wealth. These are based on figures from 2000.
The survey includes other important findings. Not surprisingly, it says, “Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe, and high-income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 per cent of total world wealth.”
The chasm between rich and poor around the world is growing, and wealth is becoming concentrated in fewer hands. You need not be an expert in geopolitical affairs to guess what countries fall at the bottom of the list: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Laos, Nepal, Afghanistan, and so on.
With Christmas approaching, Canadians can take heart that we live in one of the most prosperous nations in the world. But as engaged citizens of the global community, we should also be mindful of the implications of the extreme maldistribution of wealth around the world.
Even in the world’s richest countries, wealth is not equitably distributed within their borders. As the report noted, “Many people in high-income countries have negative net worth and — somewhat paradoxically — are among the poorest people in the world in terms of household wealth.”
If you think about it, the global maldistribution of wealth — which is tied directly to the spread of poverty — is sort of a cousin of global warming. Thankfully, for the past few years, a robust dialogue about global warming has been underway, thanks largely to countless studies, scores of books and the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. The widening gap between the rich and poor, like global warming, has potentially destructive consequences for the future, and the threat will continue to loom until the world community confronts it directly.
“Poverty is a threat to peace. That is a message for the whole world,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, the humane Bangladeshi banker who gained fame by using loans to help poor people. Three-quarters of a century earlier, Mohandas Gandhi said, “Poverty is but the worst form of violence.”
But also like global warming, the gap between rich and poor is a complex issue without easy solutions. In the 20th century, communist systems aggressively sought to correct the problem with forced collectivization plans and redistribution programs, but we are painfully aware of the disastrous outcome of those bloody experiments.
During the Cold War, global poverty was kept in check to a certain extent because the United States and Soviet Union both had a strategic interest in furnishing economic aid to countries within their spheres of influence and not allowing poverty to become too extreme in those parts of the world.
Yet times have changed, and in the post-Cold War world we are left with the growing gap between the rich and poor. The shift toward privatization around the world since the end of the Cold War has led to disastrous results of a different sort. In recent years, many governments have scaled back their efforts to combat poverty. But the problem is too enormous for the UN and private charities alone to confront.
Two years after the catastrophic Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami, reports are still coming out of Indonesia and Sri Lanka that only a small percentage of disaster relief has reached the hardest-hit areas. Charitable institutions and the UN are ill-equipped for such massive undertakings, and they lack the resources to prevent corruption in impoverished regions.
As a frustrated Indonesian relief co-ordinator noted, “The corruption has spread everywhere. It goes all the way down to the village level. I’m really disappointed. I would say from 30 per cent to 40 per cent of tsunami aid money is missing.”
In the United States, where the gospel of privatization has formed the foundation of contemporary Republican politics, the world witnessed the appalling absence of an effective federal response to hurricane Katrina in September 2005. In the Gulf Coast states, particularly in the devastated streets of New Orleans, a dog-eat-dog nightmare prevailed for weeks after the hurricane hit. Chaos, a lack of assistance for poor people, and delayed reconstruction became the order of the day.
Ignoring this issue, because it is so big, invites peril. Just as global warming threatens our climates and landscapes, poverty and the maldistribution of wealth can create conditions that give rise to violence and upheaval, and when this happens we will feel the ripples here in Canada. What better time than the present to begin discussing this matter and giving it the weight it deserves?
Andrew Hunt is the chair of the history department at the University of Waterloo.
Spiritual leader meets SA judges, politicians
Mail & Guardian – South Africa – December 16, 2006
Global spiritual and humanitarian leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar met South Africa’s top judges on Friday as part of his three-day tour of the country.
A founder member of the Art of Living Foundation (AOL), Shankar visited South Africa as part of the celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s passive resistance, or Satyagraha 100, campaign.
Gandhi’s contribution to freedom in both South Africa and India is celebrated this year.
According to his foundation, Shankar began his tour on Friday morning with a discussion with judges at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.
“He discussed the work conducted locally and internationally by his foundation in prison rehabilitation, the police service and promotion of world peace,” said the AOL in a statement.
Shankar also discussed the issue of stress among police officers who work daily with violent crime and traumatic situations.
He said to achieve the dream of a world free of violence and crime, it is important to work with the youth.
Shankar visited the cell in which Gandhi had been imprisoned, where an exhibition of Gandhi’s activities is currently on display.
The AOL is an international non-profit organisation that is represented in more than 140 countries. Shankar’s humanitarian work encompasses conflict resolution, disaster and trauma relief, empowerment of women, prison reform, eradication of child labour and free education to underprivileged children.
He also initiates peace talks and counselling in conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Israel and Pakistan.
In May this year, Shankar addressed the South African Parliament and launched the Programme for Rural Development with the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders. During his address to Parliament, Shankar expressed his gratitude to the people of South Africa for the country’s role in India’s independence.
“It is here that Gandhi sowed the seeds of independence of India, and now India is also indebted to share with you the knowledge of inner independence and inner freedom. These are essential to bring about a violence-free society,” he said.
On Friday night in Johannesburg, Shankar was to conduct a two-hour public seminar on health and happiness. On Saturday he would visit and address a meeting of the Phoenix Settlement Trust at Sarvodaya, where Gandhi lived.
His tour will end on Sunday with Satyagraha 100 celebrations on Robben Island where he will be joined by politicians.
Its Time to be Realistic about Nonviolence in a Violent World
Peace Journalism – USA – by Sushil Mittal – December 15, 2006
I have nothing new to teach the world, Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
When I said to a friend that we are developing a Center for Global Nonviolence at James Madison University, he was astonished and immediately replied: Our nation is stuck in wars that stretch from the Middle East into Central Asia. In fact, our president has declared a worldwide War on Terror. Could there be a worse time to create a Center for Global Nonviolence?
After a brief moment of silence, my response was Yes, a worse time would be when everyone is lulled to sleep by a short-lived period of peace. In fact, right now is the best time to encourage people to consider alternative ways to think and to take action. Everyone is awake to the fact that our fellow citizen-soldiers and many other innocent people die every day due to violent conflicts that show no signs of letting up or coming to a happy ending. This is exactly the kind of situation that calls for us to bring our best resources together to discover more effective ways to respond to difficult contemporary challenges.
But isnt nonviolence, he persisted, merely a way to duck and run instead of confronting world problems head on? I had to respond with an emphatic No to this question because he was confusing a commitment to nonviolence with a preference for inactivity or a passive attitude of someone who would prefer not to be involved. Nonviolence is a positive method of response instead of refusal to act in the face of troubling or even seemingly impossible situations where the odds are going against you.
But isnt nonviolence actually an unrealistic method? He was still unconvinced. It may be something nice to think about, but has it ever really accomplished anything worthwhile? Since my friend is a sensitive and intelligent person, you might be inclined to agree with him. However, if we look into the history of nonviolent action, and what it has achieved, you would be positively surprised.
Nonviolence as a strategy for change repeatedly has proven to be dangerously effective rather than too idealistic, harmless, or simply useless. It can have particularly unpleasant effects on oppressive traditions and entrenched interests that seem unaware that they are resting on unjust and unequal structures. Nashville learned that lesson in 1960 when James Lawson organized the first peaceful sit-in at racially segregated lunch counters in downtown stores. Despite resistance by merchants, complicity by the local government, lack of protection by police, and efforts to provoke the well-disciplined demonstrators to respond directly to harassment, the campaign succeeded and contributed to a positive transformation in the city. It took Nashville a few years to absorb and consolidate the changes set in motion by Lawsons nonviolent leadership, and it took the citys premier university even longer. Vanderbilt University expelled Lawson, who was a theological student at the time, and fired the Divinity Schools energetic young Dean because he publicly protested Lawsons expulsion. The fired J. Robert Nelson lost his job but went on to a distinguished career elsewhere, and the Reverend James Lawson finally received long-delayed recognition when he was named Vanderbilts alumnus of the year in 2005. Nonviolence is effective, but requires training and discipline in order to work, and can be costly to participants.
What inspired Lawson? The key event was meeting Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1956 at Oberlin College in Ohio, but it is doubtful that their meeting would have had so dramatic an outcome had it not been that both of them were already deeply influenced by the example of Mohandas K. Gandhi before they met. Lawson had served as a Methodist missionary in India and had direct knowledge of Gandhis work there and in South Africa. King had studied with Howard Thurman at Boston University, and Thurman (a grandson of north Florida slaves) had a longtime appreciation for Gandhis nonviolent methods. King advised that Lawson should contribute to change in the American south, and so he transferred from Oberlin to Vanderbilt. This story of the formation of a movement for racial justice in Nashville is retold at length by David Halberstam in his excellent book The Children (Random House, 1998).
Gandhi, in his lifetime a man who bridged two centuries and three continents, is widely acknowledged as one of the makers of the twentieth century and a much-needed counter-example to the unprecedented brutality of that century, too. He was a pioneer in the leadership of both local and national campaigns of nonviolent resistance to liberate the Indian from the clutches of a cynical, rapacious British oppressorthe mightiest material power then activethat perpetuated ancient forms of racial, gender, and ethnic discrimination, but also to liberate the Christian colonizer who was subjugating because he had allowed himself to be dominated by a dehumanizing technological culture generated by the Industrial Revolution. He wanted the British also to be free. His action was in strict fidelity to his belief and to the conclusion to which his analysis of the collision of the European with the Indian culture had led him. In fine Gandhi was saying to the British that, in a second movement, they had reduced the Indians to subjection because they had first allowed themselves, however unwittingly, to be driven to being reduced to their own subjection by a soulless technological knowledge. (Gandhis analysis is still valid as can be seen in the politics of the United States slowly, but inexorably, nazifying North America and consequently exerting a baneful influence on the whole of humanity.)
Born in 1869, educated in India and England, Gandhi went to Africa in 1891 and worked there at intervals until returning to India during World War I. In the interwar period, he led two major nonviolent protests against colonialism from 1919 to 1922 and again in 193031. He called a halt to the first one when it became clear to him that participants were not sufficiently prepared to resist the temptations of violence. The second was more successful and included his famous march to the sea. The great tragedy in his life came at the end of the colonial era in 194748. After World War II the British government, nearly bankrupt because of the war, rashly divided India into two nations that were separated by Muslim and Hindu religious differences and then quickly departedleaving their former colonial subjects to suffer the consequences. An elderly and frail Gandhi traveled the country to counsel nonviolence and encourage peace. On 30 January 1948, as he was walking to a prayer meeting, Gandhi was shot dead by a man who had been motivated by violent religious hatred. Gandhi gave up his life for his nonviolent principles.
These events in Gandhis life were well known to Thurman, Lawson, and King. They were under no illusions about the potential difficulties in a life dedicated to nonviolent action. They were realists who knew that vigilance is the price of liberty and that willingness to work and suffer is the price of justice. In 1963, when King gave his I have a dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial, many of his most dedicated fellow activists were wearing Gandhi caps that symbolized their direct connection to the principles of the man who had been called the Mahatma, or Great Soul, of India.
Gandhis principles have been carried forward in nonviolent protests and indeed revolutions in many parts of the world. It would be impossible to list the many successes here, but mention should be made of the movement that began with Lech Walesa in the shipyards of Poland and ended with the fall of the Berlin wall as well as the independence and reconciliation movements in South Africa that were inspired by President Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Among movements that currently are active, probably the best known is the work of the Dalai Lama for achieving resolution of unresolved issues with China about the status of Tibet.
Gandhian nonviolence would seem to hold out a great hope for the future of humanity. For Gandhi the opposite of war is not peace, but ahimsa; that the opposite of peace is not war, but ahimsa. What Gandhi taught is that ahimsa consists in total avoidance of harm to the Other, in thought, in speech, in action. Gandhis ahimsa is not a doctrine or a dogma: it is an action, an act of every moment. It is more of an existential happening than natural breathing. (In contrast all our appeals to Peace! are what Hamlet would qualify as Words, Words, Words! in answer to Polonius query.) Gandhi did not preach nonviolence. He did not ask others to pray for it. He acted out his ahimsa. He never swerved from the belief that a pure, noble end must be sought and attained by the execution of pure, noble means. He vigorously eschewed the argument that an evil means can be condoned if the end happens to be satisfactory. Nor did he advocate the choice of a lesser evil as a necessity to avoid being coerced to adopt a bigger evil, for the choice of the lesser evil is always evil.
Education is a key to preparing people to appreciate the value of nonviolence, the potential of nonviolent activities to address conflicts, the value of social responsibility, and the interconnected nature of all human experience. The majority of participants in the Nashville sit-ins were young students, a fact that makes sense of the title of David Halberstams book The Children. At James Madison University, we are exploring the significance for the contemporary world of the great task Gandhi set for himself and for all of us. My mission, he said, is to convert the world to non-violence for regulating mutual relations, whether political, economic, social, or religious.
The work of JMUs Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence is based on distinctively Gandhian insights, methods and strategies. It is bringing together a network of people and institutions that are willing to support investigation and implementation of nonviolent techniques for peacebuilding. Its goal is to promote a culture of nonviolence and peace worldwide based on universal values of justice, equality, freedom and a deeper understanding of the importance of mutual respect among human beings and of human appreciation for the natural environment through education, international dialogues and youth-focused programs. Embodying the highest values of inquiry, learning and creativity, the Gandhi Center enriches the universitys intellectual life with public lectures and conferences and research and learning opportunities. The Gandhi Center invites readers to participate and to contribute in any form. Learn more at www.jmu.edu/gandhicenter/.
Conference to mark centenary of satyagraha in January
The Hindu – India – December 15, 2006
NEW DELHI: Eminent persons and Nobel laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh Grameen Bank would be among the distinguished people invited to take part in the two-day international conference being organised on January 29-30 next year by the All India Congress Committee to mark the centenary of the launch of satyagraha.
Entitled `Peace, Non-violence and Empowerment – Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st Century’, the conference would be structured around four presentations by scholars and Gandhians. The subjects for these papers would be conflict resolution and peace-building; Gandhian philosophy for poverty eradication, education and people’s empowerment; dialogue among peoples and cultures; and towards a nuclear weapons free and non-violent world order.
“The conference has generated global interest. This is reflected in the impressive response extended to world leaders and heads of major political parties. Several Heads of State and Government, 29 Ministers and leadership delegations from more than 52 countries have confirmed participation,” the Minister of State for External Affairs, Anand Sharma said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.
Mr. Sharma, who was speaking in his capacity as an organiser of the international conference on behalf of the party, said other eminent persons include South African freedom fighter Ahmed Kathrada, noted Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, Lord Bikhu Parekh, Gandhian activists A.T. Ariyaratne, Gene Sharp of the Albert Einstein Institute and Chaiwat Satha-anand from Thailand.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address the two-day conference.
The conference is part of many events being organised by the party to acknowledge the historical contribution made by Mahatma Gandhi and the values espoused by him and to commemorate the centenary. “This will also be an occasion to renew the commitment of our people to his noble mission of building a world that is in peace and harmony with itself,” Mr. Sharma said adding that the conference will also have an exhibition that will document the milestones of satyagraha.
On the occasion, party treasurer Motilal Vora launched a website http://www.satyagrahaconference.com.
Gandhigiri in fashion
The Hindu / Business Line – by Ranee Kumar – December 15, 2006
We needed a Lage Raho Munnabhai to remind us about Mahatma Gandhi and Gandhism a.k.a. `Gandhigiri’ never mind the loud humour, Gandhiji was `resurrected’ in the Gen Next psyche. A similar, albeit muted, revival is on at the very Gandhian public sector entities, the Khadi Village Industries Commission and Khadi Village Industries Board. With the young and old alike showing an interest in khadi textiles, `Gandhiji’s’ khadi has turned into a style statement.
But what beats the heat out of the manufacturers of natural/herbal cosmetics in the private sector is the range of `Khadi’ cosmetics and toiletries. The niftily packaged products are available at exclusive Khadi outlets in Delhi and Mumbai, and at all `Health and Glow’ outlets across the country. What’s more, the proudly branded `Khadi’ products have found enthusiastic takers among the `anti-chemical, pro-natural’ lobbyists.
Browsing around at the Khadi outlet in Delhi’s Khan Market or at the `heritage’ Connaught Place or even Jammu’s Gandhi Sewa Sadan is enough to show you that the `Khadi’ range is something to write home about. Right from baby soaps to body scrubs for all skin types, shampoo variants for different hair conditions and body lotions with Indian floral-herbal perfumes there is a wealth of choice.
Packed in simple transparent wrappers and bottles, the contents list the quantity and ingredients in line with global trade norms.
The textiles of course are the rage and the Khadi showroom at Connaught Place is teeming with trendy Indian and western wear that are both environment-friendly and user-friendly.
Interestingly, the soaps and toiletries are not sourced from any single manufacturer. “Since the entire sector comes under the village industries nomenclature, it is essentially a rural employment generation scheme where self-help groups as well as small entrepreneurs are financed by banks and the KVIC to make small and tiny-sector products such as soaps, lotions, candles and so on while textiles is slightly big though it necessarily falls into the rural activity criteria,” says an Andhra Pradesh KVIB official.
The Government extends financial assistance in the form of margin money for two years “which in another term gets converted to subsidy to the extent of 25 per cent with an added 5 per cent in case of special categories like women, weaker classes and physically challenged. The entrepreneur is expected to take a bank loan in the first place which is partly payable through the subsidy,” says T.S. Laali, Under Secretary, Ministry of Agro and Rural Industries, Government of India, which refinances the Khadi Commission.
The returns in urban areas for specialised products and textiles are certainly high, say the officials.
At a time when the retail sector is teeming with big corporate houses and high-profile private players, a Government-run rural venture is gamely making efforts to hold its own.
‘Munna Bhai’ charms South Africans
Financial Express – Bangla Desh – December 15, 2006
South Africans attending a global judiciary summit in Mumbai have found something special to carry back home – DVDs of Bollywood blockbuster ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’.
“The movie has re-enlivened the non-violence philosophy practised by Mahatma Gandhi who continues to remain close to the hearts of the South Africans,” said Justice Kenneth Mithyane of the South African Supreme Court of Appeals.
Mithyane was there to participate in the 7th annual conference of top judicial functionaries of about 75 countries. The Lucknow-based chain City Montessori School hosted the meet.
“The theme of the film is really impressive and I am sure it’ll be a big draw back home, even though perceptions have changed and today’s generation may find it difficult to strictly follow Gandhi’s ideology of offering the other cheek after being slapped on one,” he said.
“We can never forget the contribution of the Mahatma in our freedom struggle and our fight against racism. Like in India, we also have statues of Mahatma Gandhi at prominent places. Though our government has not declared a holiday on his birth anniversary, we do pay rich tributes to him on Oct 2.”
Fatima Chouhan, a young member of the South African parliament said, “We have still preserved the (Phoenix) settlement established by Mahatma Gandhi.”
Fatima, a fourth generation South African of Indian origin who traces her roots to Gujarat, added, “the Gandhian philosophy and ideals were highly respected in South Africa as his message of brotherhood, peace and harmony changed the lives of people in our country.
Season For Nonviolence Comes As Umbrella To Long Beach
Gazette Newspapers – USA – by Carla M. Collado – December 14, 2006
As Mahatma Gandhi said, We must become the change we wish to see.
For the past decade, A Season for Nonviolence has been using this and other of the spiritual leaders philosophies in 18 countries and 400 U.S. cities to bring attention to the idea of attaining peace through nonviolent action. Now, the movement is coming to Long Beach.
The grassroots effort was started by the M.K. Gandhi Institute of Nonviolence and the Association for Global New Thought as a celebration marking the deaths of Gandhiand Martin Luther King, Jr. During the 64-day event (Jan. 30-April 4), individuals and organizations worldwide host events and activities advocating nonviolence as a way to heal and transform communities.
With A Season for Nonviolence celebrating its 10th anniversary next year, some Long Beach community leaders are looking to jump start the movement in the city.
Long Beach has never really had an organized effort, said Rev. Kristin Hawkins of the Namasté Spiritual Center and longtime AGNT member.
Hawkins said while there are many local groups working to promote nonviolence, its necessary to create a local Season for Nonviolence task force so that they all can work together.
As a coordinated effort, the organizations could promote nonviolence classes, workshops, trainings, vigils and other programs.
It forms an umbrella for the work thats already being done in the community, Hawkins said. It brings a level of awareness thats not present.
Last month, Hawkins organized a meeting with local leaders and groups to discuss the creation of a local task force for A Season for Nonviolence. Several committed to supporting the effort, including City Council members, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the interfaith community, the Long Beach Unified School District, several battered womens shelters and other youth social service organizations, Hawkins said.
The next meeting which is open to the public is from 6 to 7:30 p.m. today (Thursday) on the fifth floor of the Wells Fargo Bank at 111 W. Ocean Blvd. Hawkins said the groups main focus this coming year will be to promote existing nonviolence programs and create a network of organizations. Some of the promotion may be done through a new Web site.
The gist is less program-oriented as it is awareness building, she said.
As a kick-off event for the 2007 A Season for Nonviolence, the Namasté Spiritual Center will put on The Enlightenment, a full-scale musical, on Jan. 20 at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. The play follows characters through various stages of losing and finding their way in life, and ultimately focuses on the idea that all people are one and the same and should treat each other as one, Hawkins explained.
Its a wonderful message and vehicle for dialogue on the theme of nonviolence, she said.
AGNT and the Hefferlin Foundation will sponsor the event.
To learn more about A Season for Nonviolence, visit www.agnt.org.
Bapu, Nehru And The Last Viceroy
Rediff.com – India – December 14, 2006
Actor Surendra Rajan who plays Mahatma Gandhi along with Roshan Seth who plays Jawaharlal Nehru, during shooting for the film The Last Viceroy, in Pataudi, some 100 km south of New Delhi.
The Last Viceroy, directed by Carl Hindmarch for United Kingdom’s Channel 4, is based on the life of India’s last viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten.
Whats so noble about the Nobel peace prize?
Global Politician – USA – by Bhuwan Thapaliya – December 13, 2006
Nobel Peace Prize was founded in 1901.Thereafter, 94 exemplary figures and 19 humanitarian organizations have received the dazzling prize. But ironically, a person whose very life symbolizes peace never got the prized accolade. Isnt this surprising? But yet, Mahatma Gandhi continues to shine as the beacon of love, peace and non-violent resistance all over the world. Why? Because he was a man, who proved that even the greatest of all conflicts could be resolved by the weapons of non violence and love.
Take for instance, the latest Nepalese peace accord singed by the Maoists and the Government. Who would have in their wildest dreams thought that after years of violent conflict, peace would finally shroud Nepal and that too through round table consensus? But that has happened in Nepal and Nepal has shown the world that conflicts no matter how harsh can be resolved by non violent means once again Gandhism prevails.
Let us now focus more on the legend himself. Gandhi. Legends say, in the run up after India gained Independence , Lord Mountbatten, Britain s last viceroy wrote a short letter to Mahatma Gandhi as a tribute. Synopsis of that historic letter as published in various media reports since then is as follows.
My dear Gandhi ji , in the Punjab we have 55,000 soldiers and large scale rioting on our hands. In Bengal our forces consist of one man, and there is no rioting. May I be allowed to pay my tribute to the One Man Boundary Force, wrote Lord Mountbatten, as per the historical sources.
Analysts say, Mountbattens message referred to that famous fasting, that Gandhi took for communal unity, and it served as an indication to one of the Gandhis greatest feats of non violence action. Through his historic feat, Mahatma Gandhi, stopped a year long bloodbath in Bengal and gave it a new political dimension.
Observers say, had that wonder occurred today, Gandhi would almost certainly have won the famous Nobel Peace Prize. But what prompted the Norwegian Committee to bypass him then, when this great feat was done, has mystified both the historians and Gandhis adherent followers all over the world.
After all, it was Gandhi, who inspired such Nobel peace laureates as Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. But why was Gandhi, not awarded a Nobel Peace Prize is a paradox, given the fact that few leaders this century have contributed for peace more than him.
In this issue, analysts say, Gandhi may have been denied the prize because of Norway s strong pro British sentiments fresh after the World War II. This argument holds some ground because Britain was regarded by the Norwegians as their benefactor from Germany during World War II.
And to further strengthen the argument, there were also stories that the Nobel Committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, included those leaders who had fought against Nazis.
But critics say though this is a relevant argument but not at all convincing, as there were many accounts of Norway appreciating Gandhi and his ideologies.
In any case, in ways that truly matter to individuals, another important factor that may have denied the prize to Gandhi according to the analysts may have been the religious strife that engulfed the subcontinent from 1946 to 1948.
The lethal religious strife had increasingly worried Gandhi. And moreover, it has been stated times and again by Gandhi himself that he considered the civil war and the consequent partition as evidence of his own failure. A groundswell of antagonism toward Gandhi was especially evident in the subcontinent after the partition.
And yet another lame argument came into the existence. Gandhi has been criticized for neglecting his family and driving his eldest son to alcoholism. And some say due to this reason, Nobel committee sidelined him, but this in itself is a joke because Nobel Peace Prize is less about individual character and more about a person’s contribution to peace and society.
History suggests us that Gandhi voluntarily renounced his family life considering the fate of his nation so that he could work toward stopping what he saw as the brutalization of human nature over colonialism.
They say Gandhi entered the final of the Nobel race thrice in three different years, ranging from 1937 to 1948, but in all these encounters he lost the race. Gandhi was nominated for the peace prize in 1937, 1947 and 1948. But he was assassinated before a decision was reached on the 1948 award. This raises the question, had he been not assassinated in 1948, would he have won the Nobel Prize for peace that year.
Was Gandhi about to get the prize in 1948? Curiosities like these will tease us forever, but we may never know the real reasons behind Gandhis not getting the prize.
Nonetheless, Mahatma Gandhi not getting Nobel Prize has shown how politics often influence the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. It also raises some doubts in our mind and urges us to push question such as this, Is Nobel peace prize really noble, if it is, then whats so noble about the Nobel peace prize?
Whatsoever, Mahatma has nothing to lose by not getting the Noble prize, but this has shown that what is politically correct to a group of Scandinavian academicians doesnt represent the values of peace globally.
And moreover another paradox is this: Though the Nobel rules of the late 1940s allowed for posthumous awards, Gandhi never did get one. Why? Was he not a suitable candidate to be bestowed with that prize posthumoulsy?
Now, perhaps it is time to redress the oversight and look at the contemporary world engulfed by the brutalities of war. Think about the war in Srilanka, think about the ever deteriorating situation in Iraq , the Talibans rising in Afghanistan, terrorists erupting all over the world, Israel Paletine conflict, and also think about the latest peace accord reached in Nepal that led to the end of the 13 years bloody conflict.
Indeed, the contemporary world order could do a lot in ending the conflicts, if they are reminded of Gandhis message of Satyagraha.Most recently Nepal used his ideology to end the brutal conflict. Had Nepal tried to resolve the issue by other means, then Nepal would have further sunk into the abyss of uncertainties. Let the world scrutinize the exemplary model of conflict resolution that very model build by Nepal galvanized under the Gandhis ideology.
Nonetheless, The Nobel Peace Prize paradox will continue to mystify Gandhis followers and the lovers of peace all over the world. However, the greatest accolade ever given to the great man by the Nobel Committee was in the year of his assassination (1948). In a possible tribute to Gandhi, no peace prize was given that year.
Now, isnt this the heights of a Nobel discrimination subjected towards the true son of peace? In 1948, the Nobel Committee should have given the peace prize to Gandhi posthumously instead of wasting it by not giving it to anybody. They should have given it to Gandhi instead. Considering this, I am compelled to think that this year too it will not consider giving it to another man who really deserves it much more than any contemporary leaders – Nepal s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Is the Nobel Committee listening? Or will it keep on making the same mistake again and again.
If one of these two proponent of peace never get a Nobel Peace Prize, then we all will be compelled to ask, whats so noble about the Nobel Peace Prize?
Bhuwan Thapaliya is a Nepalese journalist and book author.
The spirit of silence
Hindustan Times – India – by V N Chibber – December 12, 2006
In this world of increasing noise and clamour, what could the value of silence possibly be? I found the following insightful thoughts going a-begging and would like to bring them to the notice of HT readers.
Your silence restores your body as a nest energises birds at rest, said Rabindranath Tagore, while Mahatma Gandhi had this to say: “Silence helps in winning over anger to the extent that no other thing can.
Bhartrihari, the ancient Sanskrit poet, opined, Silence is an illiterates jewel in a gathering of scholars,” which I felt was truly inspiring.
Ramdhari Singh Dinkar was fond of the quote, Speech is silver but silence is golden,” which strengthened my resolve to acquire the practice of silence.
Writer Haribhau Upadhyayas observation, Silence that is born of fear is animal-like while silence owing to discipline is divine, triggered the spark of spirituality in me.
My thoughts went inevitably to saint Kabir Dass stanza, with apologies for the translation, always difficult in English: Arguments and discourse lead to a lot of poison/Speech leads to a great nuisance/But silence bears everyones speech/And lends time for a soul to connect with the Supreme.
With my new soul-consciousness, I recalled my own evolution since my youth. As a schoolboy I was an extrovert with the habit of loud speech who would burst guffaws for no rhyme or reason. By the time I arrived at college, I had become a very talkative person. But what saved me eventually was my habit of going to the library during free periods. I became a bookworm, browsing through any spiritual tome that came my way.
Yet, what could silence give me? I found that it could conserve energy that helped in solving vexing problems. Moreover, if one kept silent through long periods of time, one could get along with ones business without trouble or hindrance. Calmness has always paid rich dividends.
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