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Sometimes
when I look at the state of the world today and
all the violence that is perpetrated by human
beings I wonder if we will ever learn from the
wisdom of sages of the past who tried desperately
during their lifetime to show us a more honorable,
a more harmonious and a more peaceful way of life.
It was not just my grandfather, Mohandas K. Gandhi,
who talked about nonviolence but Jesus, Buddha,
Mahavira, Mohammed and scores of others. Yet,
while we worship these people we contemptuously
dismiss their message as irrelevant today. The
question that we have to ask ourselves is: why
do we worship people whose message is meaningless
and irrelevant?
The philosophy of nonviolence that grandfather
put together after reading all the scriptures
of the world is one that is based on love, respect,
understanding, appreciation, compassion and commitment
-- all positive principles. So, when we ask the
question: Is nonviolence relevant today we are
in fact asking is love, respect, understanding,
compassion and commitment relevant today? If we
can honestly say that these positive principles
are not relevant today then there is no hope for
humanity. In which case all our passion for religion
and prayer is a wasted effort. However, fortunately,
not all of us are selfish and self-centered and
so there is a modicum of hope for humanity.
For too long humanity all over the world has been
consumed by prejudice, hate, apathy, ignorance,
fear, mistrust, deception, greed, guilt and an
exploitative nature all of which breed violence.
We commit violence in many different ways. There
is the physical violence -- wars, killing, beating,
murders, rape etc. and then the passive violence
where we don't use any physical force but nevertheless
hurt people through our insensitive attitude.
My grandfather taught me that it is passive violence
that fuels the fire of physical violence so, logically,
if we wish to put out the fire of physical violence
we need to cut off the fuel supply. Therefore,
we must be the change we wish to see in the world.
Instead of being the change and finding ways to
live in harmony we as individuals and as nations
want to change the rest of the world into our
image religiously, economically and politically
giving rise to a great deal of conflict. The United
States has been pursuing a foreign policy based
on arrogance and the United Kingdom is a willing
partner in this negative and evil design. The
United States discovered terrorism on September
11, 2001, and now wants to kill terrorism. Yet
no one knows how to define terrorism nor do we
know how to put a face on a terrorist. A terrorist
could be living next door; to an abused child
an insensitive parent could be a terrorist; to
a woman a rapist is a terrorist and the list can
go on and on. So, should we assume that all parents
are evil and all men are rapists?
Because we want quick and easy justice we resort
to "an eye for an eye" which is what
has made all the world blind. Justice should not
mean revenge, it should mean reformation. We are
told that harsh laws and severe punishment will
deter people from crime. We have practiced this
philosophy for generations and in fact crime has
only increased in volume and severity and so has
the punishment. This is because we have focused
on the person instead of the problem. Enlarge
this point of view to the international level
and we have the same insensitive reaction.
Violent gangs around the world have flourished
on the principle "if you are not with us
you are against us." Gang leaders believe
those who are against us are dispensable and must
be eliminated. As a super-power the United States
and as an ally the United Kingdom are now displaying
the propensities of gang leaders. We once wanted
to eliminate the Taliban and Bin Laden but since
they have disappeared our focus has changed to
Saddam Hussein. The attitude smacks of our compulsive
desire to "make someone pay for what happened
to us."
After September 11 I wrote an article "Nonviolence
and Terrorism" which is on our website
-- http://www.gandhiinstitute/.org
-- since no one wanted to publish it. The gist
of the article is that this is not the time for
a civilized nation to declare war on terrorism
and kill a lot of innocent people but to do some
honest introspection to find out why people around
the world hate us so much as to want to destroy
us. There are many reasons but the one the people
of the world hate the most is our arrogance that
leads us to believe that we can bully and bend
people to our will and our excessive desires.
Ultimately, it is our arrogance that will destroy
us because one half of the world cannot survive
if the other half is allowed to perish.
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