Cultivating a culture of Peace - a Gandhan Prospective (my speech in URI, Netherlands webinar)

Cultivating a culture of Peace - a Gandhan Prospective

I feel very proud to stand before you to speak on this auspicious occasion and to be a part of this august gathering. I am soaking up every moment of this touching and important event. All of us invited should express our deep gratitude to the United Religions Initiative, Netherlands for giving us such an opportunity. Morgana really deserves congratulations for this.

 South Africans feel proud that they have an important part in the aura of that great soul known as Mahatma Gandhi, whose philosophy, life and work have deeply influenced them . As you know, in the early twentieth century, within ten days of his arrival in  beautiful South Africa, he had to endure the humiliating treatment of being thrown out of the first class compartment of the train in which he was travelling with a valid ticket. This incident took place at a place called Pietermaritzburg. He himself later described this incident as the most formative experience of his life, which inspired the Indian people in South Africa.

   It opened his eyes to the plight of the poor and showed him the way to develop satyagraha – adherence to truth through non-violent action.

Gandhi was instrumental in founding the Natal Indian Congress and his non-violent measures improved the condition of South African Indians considerably. It is only because Africa was the place of action where his experiences and thoughts matured that we can rightly claim an important part of Mahatma Gandhi’s greatness. He was central to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and it was there that his political acumen flourished. He returned to his native land and played a decisive role in the emergence of an independent and democratic state in India, the world’s largest democracy, by defeating the colonialism of the British Raj. He also campaigned effectively against casteism and connected with the so-called untouchables and Dalits whom he called Harijans – children of God. He believed that the feeling of revenge and retribution was suicidal.  The practice of an eye for an eye will only end after making everyone blind.

   Doesn't it seem that we are a people who never learn? We keep hitting the same branch again and again. Remember what Hitler did. He once blamed the Jews for Germany's economic wars and persecuted them in the same way as he did gypsies, homosexuals and blacks. All of them were different people. He wanted to combat diversity by eliminating it. The result was a terrible horror of extermination. Eventually this nightmare ended with the defeat of the Nazis, since which Germany has lived with diversity and has prospered on the whole.

So was the evil of apartheid. The supporters of apartheid resorted to violence and cruelty to enforce their immoral system. Although those who opposed apartheid were committed to non-violence, these victims eventually resorted to violence in their struggle against the apartheid system. Almost everyone had predicted this - poor country!  The apartheid system was bound to prevail. It should have done so. But it did not. Was the solution to this problem through violence? No. The solution to this difficult problem of ours was possible when the opposite parties sat together, they talked, they disagreed and they also made compromises. Then the new South Africa emerged and it has become a model of forgiveness and reconciliation. Nelson Mandela, who has been mentioned earlier, emerged as a universal symbol of generosity and forgiveness.

   In Iraq and almost everywhere else, rivals have so far resorted to violence. But one day they will realise that peace, stability and prosperity can only be achieved through non-violent means of dialogue – talking to each other, making compromises, understanding the other’s position. Martin Luther King Jr., a disciple of the Mahatma, said this very succinctly. He said, you have two choices - non-violence and non-existence. 

  This is a moral universe. Injustice, oppression and evil can never be the ultimate truth. Ultimately, truth, goodness, love, humour, compassion, caring for each other and participation will prevail. Those who have used power to increase their wealth, to commit injustice and to oppress others have perished. They have ultimately bitten the dust – and that too shamefully.  Where are those who seemed to dominate everyone in their protected groups, who seemed invincible, the Hitlers, the Amnesties, the Mussolinis, the apartheid criminals, Pinochet and so on? Once again we ask, where are they? They have become the discarded trash of history.

The people who deserve our highest respect and deepest esteem are not those who appear aggressive, scary - never. The people who deserve our deepest respect are people like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. We respect them immensely because they are good and we are made for goodness, compassion and caring for one another. We are made for brotherhood, for family. We cannot win the war against terror as long as some people in the world continue to treat our own brothers and sisters, our family members, as if they do not exist.  We are made for the spirit of living together, for harmony. In  India we use a word called Bandhutav , which is easy to translate. It is a word that describes generosity, hospitality, gentleness and caring for one another. Bandhutav is the essence of humanity and we believe that a human being is human because of other people, because we are bound together in this bundle of life.

   Mahatma Gandhi used to say that, yes, we can be free only together, we can be safe only together, we can prosper only together, we can be human only together – and in no other way.

 Abject poverty: Fertile ground for instability, revolution and terrorism

Unfortunately, this unprecedented progress in science and technology has not improved the deteriorating social and economic conditions of the world's poor. The recent World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, confirmed the global concern that the vast majority of people around the world still remain trapped in abject poverty. This concern was again expressed at the recent meeting of world leaders in Davos, where the futile efforts to reduce global poverty were reconsidered. The enormous progress made through modern science and technology is yet to reach billions of people. Poverty and its associated miserable social conditions exist at dangerous levels in most parts of the world, fuelling conflict, violence, depression and extremism. International terrorism finds a suitable platform to spread the ideology of hatred and senseless violence against innocent people.  In the race for ideological and personal interests, nations and organizations give the name of morality to extremism and glorify it.

So we need to address the critical issues of conflict resolution and poverty alleviation as the basis for sustainable peace, security, stability, cooperation and development. To do this we will need Gandhi's message embodied in satyagraha. Gandhi used non-violence as a force to mobilise millions against injustice and he won. His victory became an inspiration to many around the world. Martin Luther King Jr. adopted non-violence in the US and won. ZAMBIA adopted it in  and they won. Thus his victory became our victory. South Africa is certainly an exception. Liberation movements resorted to arms only because minority apartheid governments used armed repression to crush the aspirations of Africans. There was bound to be a nationalist reaction against this, proving true the dictum that "those who obstruct peaceful change are the ones who make a violent change inevitable."

 Therefore, by relaunching the Satyagraha movement, we will have the opportunity to authoritatively tell the war merchants – enough is enough: stop the war, start a dialogue. Spare the innocent people. Stop playing the games of war and now play the games of peace.

    Stop the blame game and stop worrying about saving face and save innocent lives. No unjust war, no matter how well fought, brings honor to the victor. The Americans, who have much greater and superior power, learned a good lesson from the Vietnam War. America's hegemony in global affairs may be unquestionable, but that does not give it the right to dominate and control the world. Afghanistan , a country smaller in size than many US states, has proven that.

    The spread of nuclear weapons cannot be ignored. This problem must be addressed properly and without bias. It defeats the very purpose of the Satyagraha movement.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize the following: the destructive and costly wars that are being waged today are futile and must be stopped immediately. Military options have failed to achieve their objectives. Nuclear weapons may be enough to establish the supremacy of a single nation over the rest of the world by destroying entire countries. Nothing less than nuclear weapons can establish the supremacy of a single nation over the world. There is only one practical option in these games of war and that is dialogue and negotiations to end the fighting. Most people in uniform will stand by this reality. There will be no victors from war, the only losers will be dead men and those who continue to die on battlefields.  The weapon the world needs to save humanity from destruction in the twenty-first century is not the weapon of mass destruction, but the weapon of the values ​​and wisdom embraced by Gandhi and contained in Satyagraha as the hope for the future. As citizens of this global village, we must contribute to peace and security and dedicate ourselves to non-violence and dialogue. We must declare in one voice that we will all live with love, peace and joy.

   No War No Peace

Modern thinking generally assumes that the alternatives to violence and war are negotiation, dialogue, diplomacy, compromise, reconciliation and other such means of resolving conflict.

All of these are good and effective tools in many situations, and need to be further understood and refined. However, this list does not include all alternatives to violence. It does not take into account Gandhi's ideas and experiences in the development of satyagraha, and the important larger historical application of nonviolent struggle in social, economic, political and international conflicts.

     The contributions of conflict resolution and peace research are important in dealing with some conflicts, especially those of secondary importance. But they are inadequate in dealing with serious conflicts.

Gandhi's Answer

Gandhi's answer was to identify conflicts where the issues are fundamental. These are conflicts in which moral values, human rights and justice are at stake and where compromise is neither possible nor desirable. In that situation, the primary responsibility of the proponent of nonviolent means, as Gandhi said, is to help the oppressed learn how to empower themselves by using satyagraha or nonviolent agitation to change their situation. Most Western advocates of conflict resolution, peace researchers and pacifists have not yet fully internalized this great contribution to the resolution of serious conflicts.

Some quotes on Mahatma Gandhi. 

     In the ages to come, in the millennia to come, people will remember this generation in which this divine person set foot on this earth and will also think of us that despite being insignificant, we followed his holy footsteps. We have to make ourselves worthy of him.

(Jawaharlal Nehru) 

He emphasized on morality at a time when science, technology and capitalism had made it insignificant. He sought the good of as many people as possible by maintaining the importance of 'self' instead of selfishness.

(Nelson Mandela) 

Before it is too late, let us try to the best of our abilities that people all over the world accept the message of Mahatma Gandhi as the basic foundation of life.

(Albert Einstein) 

It will never be possible to properly evaluate the contribution of Mahatma Gandhi to India and the world. He has left an indelible mark on history as well as on our hearts. He was a revolutionary, a saint, a visionary and a pragmatist.  The fall of empires became a very easy task for this modest person only by applying the touchstone of truth in every matter and situation.

(Indira Gandhi) 

Expressing an opinion about Mahatma Gandhi is as difficult as expressing an opinion about the Himalayas.

(George Bernard Shaw)

Paper presented by Ram Mohan Rai, General, Secretary, Gandhi Global Family.