Paths to Peace
INDIA’S Voices in UNESCO
64 Years of UNESCO- India Co-operation
UNESCO Ofiice in New Delhi
UNESCO House
B-5/29, Safdarjung Enclave
New Delhi - 110 029
India
Tel: (91-11) 26713000
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.unesco.org/newdelhi
PATHS TO PEACE:
India’s Voices in UNESCO
64 years of
UNESCO-India Co-operation
© UNESCO New Delhi, 2009
ISBN: 978-81-89218-33-1
Special thanks to:
Mr. Jens Boel, Cecilia Barbieri, Rekha Beri and Kamakshi Nanda
Designed & Printed by: Macro Graphics Pvt. Ltd. (www.macrographics.com)
Table of Contents
Foreword
by Shri. Kapil Sibal
Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development
Introduction
by Mr. Armoogum Parsuramen
Director UNESCO New Delhi Office
v
vii
Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Letter to Director General of UNESCO Mr. Julian Huxley, 1947
Message to the Nanking Conference in 1947
1
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Address to the General Conference at Beirut in 1948
7
Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru
Address to the UNESCO Delegates in New Delhi, 1956
13
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Address to the General Conference at New Delhi in 1956
19
Mr. Malcolm S. Adiseshiah
Poem on ‘Change’ in 1970
25
Shri. Rajiv Gandhi
Address at the 121st Session of the Executive Board, 1985
29
Dr. Sarvepalli Gopal
on ‘Nehru and World Understanding’ in 1989
35
Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao
Inaugural Lecture at the Mahatma Gandhi
Memorial Lecture Series in 1995
41
Introduction
Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of peace and crusader for non-violence, wrote a
letter on 25th May 1947 to Dr. Julian Huxley, Director-General of UNESCO,
which has great relevance for us today. I quoted this letter in my farewell
speech to UNESCO Executive Board on 23rd September 2009. Gandhiji had
said: “… I learnt from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be
deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus the very right to live
accrues to us only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world’.
Mahatma Gandhi also sent a message to the Regional Study Conference of
Fundamental Education held in Nanking, China in 1947. In this message,
while expressing his deep interest in the efforts of the UNESCO to ‘secure
peace through educational and cultural activities’, he pointed out that
‘real security and lasting peace cannot be secured so long as extreme
inequalities in education and culture exist as they do among the nations of
the world’.
The thoughts expressed by Mahatma Gandhi both in his letter to Dr. Huxley
and in his message are eve more relevant today than they were in 1947.
****
UNESCO, an organisation that came up out of the devastation and horror
of WW II, is wholly committed to preserving and ensuring Peace in today’s
world order. ‘That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of
men that the defences of peace must be constructed’ reads the Preamble to
the UNESCO Constitution. Many a great men have dedicated their lives to
maintaining and propagating peace. Amongst them many Indian luminaries
have used UNESCO as a convenient platform for propounding peace.
This Peace is however ever-changing, that is to say, the understanding of
it, differs. Each generation throws up new dimensions to it, and yet it is
admirably universal and indispensible. This slim volume puts together the
voices of eminent Indians who advocated different paths to peace at different
historical moments during the last six decades.
****
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
The world, specially Europe, was recovering from the aftermath of the two
wars. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, an internationally acknowledged philosopherstatesman, addressed the Third Session of the General Conference of UNESCO
held in Beirut on 19. 11. 1948. He drew attention to the fact that UNESCO
had to work in a world of acute political tensions. ‘The threat which hangs
over human civilization is the symptom of a desperate moral need. There can
be no stable future for the world without a spiritual revolution – without a
transformation of human motivation. A good world cannot be built on pride or
selfishness, hatred or injustice, greed or lust for power’.
Dr. Radhakrishnan’s concern was echoed at a different time in 1956. The
Cold War was at its peak. The General Conference of UNESCO was held
in Delhi on 5th November 1956. Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of
India, spearheading the non-aligned movement, spoke with unparalleled
conviction on the special role of UNESCO in bringing about a new world
order. He said: ‘Man does not live by politics alone, nor indeed wholly by
economics. And so UNESCO came to represent something that was vital
to human existence and progress. Even as the United Nations General
Assembly represented the political will of the world community, UNESCO
tried to represent the finer and deeper sides of human life and indeed might
be said to represent the conscience of the world community’. He added that
‘UNESCO is intimately concened with the dignity of man and the vital
importance of freedom’. He called upon people to have consistency between
public pronouncements and practice.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a doyen of the freedom movement in India, a
matchless scholar and the first Minister of Education in the Government
of India, was the President of the same UNESCO General Conference in
1956. As scholar, statesman and politician, he was keenly conscious of the
historical circumstances of the past ‘which created invidious wall between
the Western and the Eastern worlds’. He was aware that the vestiges of
that wall were still lingering, but with his hope and deep understanding
of the trajectory of the rise and fall of civilizations, he was confident that
sooner or later these must give way to truly modern and democratic values.
For him foremost in UNESCO’s programmes were those on education.
He was convinced that the right type of education ‘did not mean the
cultivation of the mind and the intellect alone. It also entails the all-round
development of personality in the context of social and economic progress of
the community’. At this conference he also advocated the need for free and
compulsory education for children.
viii
Introduction
Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad was equally sensitive to the role of UNESCO
in fostering a dialogue between cultures and civilizations. He complimented
UNESCO’s contribution in promoting better cultural understanding among
different peoples and regions. He brought to attention the many causes of
wars – racial, territorial, economic – and was convinced that education and
mutual understanding were the instrumentalities for creating peace. In
conclusion he remarked: ‘If men were rational, there has never before been a
better prospect for peace than there is today .’
The voices of these leaders in UNESCO were heard with rapt attention.
These voices still reverberate in the meetings of UNESCO. One international
civil servant, Malcolm Adiseshiah, was the Deputy Director-General of
UNESCO. He was a participant and observer of the debates and responsible
for the execution of the programmes. From this experience he wrote a poem
Its time to Begin, which has significance for us today.
The young and dynamic Prime Minister, Shri. Rajiv Gandhi, addressed
the Executive Board of UNESCO in 1985. He stressed the role of UNESCO
in various domains. He voiced the primacy of freedom and peace. He said,
‘Human history is a story of bondage and freedom, of strife and harmony,
of rivalry and co-operation, of aggression and accommodation. As the great
Indian saint, Guru Nanak, proclaimed, man is born to be free. History is
basically the record of man’s search for freedom, for beauty, for meaning and
fulfilment. It is only through acceptance of co-existence, through a willingness
to preserve the wonderful diversity of the earth, through seeking the new
and fusing it with the old, that civilization, built with the bricks of education,
science and culture, can be preserved and enriched.’
Decades later, Dr. S. Gopal, the son of Dr. Radhakrishnan, represented
India in the Executive Board. He carried the legacy of his father and shared
the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru, the maker of modern India. On the occasion
of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru, organized
by UNESCO on 27–29th September 1989, he highlighted Nehru’s vision.
Nehru saw that, while the United Nations, on its political side, took the
world as it was, UNESCO sought to change the world and prepare us for
a better future. Further he reminded the audience that Nehru had spoken
several times on the indivisibility of freedom and peace and had given
unreserved support to those battling against apartheid. Dr. Gopal said that
Nehru recognized that UNESCO, concerned with the deeper and finer sides
of human life, can do much to create confidence and break down the walls of
mistrust.
ix
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
Shri. P. V. Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister of India gave the inaugural
lecture at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture series commemorating
the 125th anniversary of the Birth of Gandhi in 1995 in Paris. His address
not only took his audience through the life of Gandhi and how he became
the apostle of peace, but also brought home the relevance of the principle of
Satyagraha and non-violence not only in his time but also in our times.
Shri. Rao said that the Mahatma had made a distinctive innovation of
morally oriented political action in the twentieth century.
****
It will be evident from the above that each of these Indians had one goal, and
that was peace. The paths were many. As the world has experienced different
political and economic configurations, the Indians’ resolve and commitment
to peace and their recognition of UNESCO’s distinctive role as the conscience
keeper was never weakened.
I am especially grateful to Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan for her contribution to this
publication. Her encouragement, kind words and advice was much needed
and highly appreciated. I consider myself privileged to have been given
the opportunity to serve as Director of the UNESCO office in Delhi and
representative of the Organization to India, Bhutan, the Maldives and Sri
Lanka. I thought that as a first offering of my assignment I may assemble the
Voices of India. It is my firm conviction that these voices, their aspirations
and goals would be concretized in the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of
Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, which has been adopted
at the 35th session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris as a Category
One institute.
Armoogum Parsuramen
Mahatma Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi
(1868–1948)
Father of the Nation
Man with a vision and message of Peace,
Satyagraha and Non-Violence
Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Message to the Regional Study Conference of
Fundamental Education
Nanking, China 1947
‘I am deeply interested in the efforts of the UNESCO to secure peace through
educational and cultural activities. I fully appreciate that real security
and lasting peace cannot be secured so long as extreme inequalities in
education and culture exist as they do among the nations of the world.
Light must be carried even to the remotest homes in less fortunate countries
which are in comparative darkness and I think that in this cause the
nations which are economically and educationally advanced have a special
responsibility. I wish your conference every success and I hope that you will
be able to produce a workable plan for providing the right type of education
particularly in countries in which opportunities for education are restricted
owing to economic and other circumstances.’
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Dr. Radhakrishnan Addressing the General Conference in 1956 in
New Delhi ©UNESCO Archives Paris
(1888–1975)
Member of Executive Board UNESCO 1948
President of UNESCO General Conference 1952
Former President of India (1962–1967)
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Leader of the Delegation of India, at the Fourth Plenary
Meeting of the Third Session of the General Conference of
UNESCO, Beirut, 19th November, 1948
‘The nations of the world- small and great- are spending large parts of their
national incomes in building up war material. Rich countries can perhaps do
so without neglecting the essential needs of health, education and employment,
but poorer nations cannot afford to spend large sums on unproductive military
expenditure. Yet, held in the grip of fear, they are unable to apply their
energies to moral and material development of the people and are obliged to
waste their resources on security measures. Is it not inconceivable that after
a long and terrific war which has reduced vast portions of the world to a
position in which we can hardly afford to live, we are still busy finding new,
more costly, more cruel ways in which to kill and die? Mr. Urey, one of the
scientists engaged in producing the atom bomb, says: “In an atomic explosion
thousands die within a fraction of a second. In the immediate area nothing
is left standing. There are no walls. They all vanished into dust and smoke.
There are no wounded. There are not even bodies. At the centre, a fire many
times hotter than any fire we have ever known, has pulverised buildings
and human beings into nothingness.” The bomb was used with devastating
effects in the last war and the reasons which prompted and justified its use
will prevail again if there is another war. The world seems to have dropped a
dimension. It has worn thin. Through the mouth of Satan in the Mysterious
Stranger, Mark Twain sardonically remarks : “No brute ever does a cruel
thing. That is the monopoly of those with the Moral Sense.”
Modern warfare is a mass activity, and it can be carried on only if populations
are brought to believe that they have a characteristic way of life which is
threatened by some other population which has not only a different but a
contradictory way of life. These sophistries ravage men’s conscience and
make them tools of a vast State machine. We are today running the risk
of allowing ourselves to be obsessed by the inevitability of the catastrophe.
Instead of trying to prevent a war, we are more concerned about winning it
if it came. This growing fatalism is an ominous sign of our times. There is
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
a psychological retreat from peace and approach to war. The causes which
produce wars are raging at the moment. If we are not to disappoint the great
hope of the common people of every country to live in a world of peace this
supreme problem has to be looked at not from a political but from a human
point of view.
UNESCO has to work in a world of acute political tensions, of ideological
conflicts- a world of frustration, lack of faith- a scorched world which has
lost the great sources of strength and reasons for hope. Our duty here, as
believers in a world order, is to speak out courageously and to bear witness
to the truth as we see it. The present moment is eminently favourable for it is
eminently dangerous. The danger is manifest. We talk about the re-education
of Germany and Japan for they caused the last war. We are today drifitng in
the direction of war and it is time to see within, search within, to discover that
fundamental unclealiness in our minds which is responsible for the present
human predicament. We are all failing to live our lives in conformity with the
moral code we profess. We feel that certain acts are wrong and still do them.
We are thus acting against our conscience. We cannot say : “God, I thank Thee
I am not as other men are.” To quote the words of John : “If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
Peace, let us realize, does not consist in the mere absense of war. It consists
in the equilibrium that only justice and order can maintain. Truth is not
an abstract value we express through scientific research, literary creation
and philosophic speculation. It is the concrete seeking for social justice. Our
first article speaks of faith in human rights and fundamental freedoms. The
first right is for food and shelter to maintain life. The masses today demand
this and will get it, for they are in a majority. We are informed by a reliable
authority that out of every three families in the world two die for lack of
adequate food and shelter. Masses of people die young and suffer famines,
while others live at full nutrition standards. Our preamble rightly stresses
that true peace can be built only on the basis of human welfare. It is hunger
that drives men to adopt the ways of the jungle. Peace and contement are
interwined. A system that can produce all the necessities of life in unlimited
quantities should not tolerate the distinction between countries which have
too much of everything and others which live below the minimum human
standards…
The threat which hangs over human civilization is the symptom of a desperate
moral need. There can be no stable future for the world without a spiritual
10
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
revolution- without a transformation of human motivation. A good world
cannot be built on pride or selfishness, hatred or injustice, greed or lust
for power. Thucydides said long ago that this power lust is “like a wicked
courtesan which makes nation after nation in love with her and betrays them
one after another to their ruin.” Napoleon, Kaiser and Hitler; and who knows
if human folly has run its full course. A spiritual renewal is necessary if the
world is to be saved. A new purpose must co-ordinate our Education, our
Science and our Culture, make them integral elements of a world view which
should inspire all our activities. The Koran says: “Verily, God will not change
the conditions of men till they change what is in themselves.”
11
Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru
Nehru at a General Conference Meeting in New Delhi in 1956
©UNESCO Archives, Paris
(1889–1964)
First Prime Minister of India (1947–1964)
Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru
Nehru’s speech at the General Conference on
5th November, 1956
‘…the meeting of this General Conference of UNESCO in Delhi has a certain
special significance. It is a tribute, if I may say so, to the importance that is
now attached by this great Organisation to the countries of Asia.
But there is yet another significance to this Conference which was not
realized when this date and venue were chosen. We meet at a moment when
we can hear again the dread tramp of armed men and the thunder of the
bombs hurled from the skies to destroy men and cities below… but these very
developments force reality upon us and mould our thinking.
Soon after the last great war ended, and as a result of the war and the hunger
for peace of the peoples of the world, the United Nations organization came
into being. The General Assembly of the United Nations came to represent
the mind of the world community and its desire for peace. If the General
Assembly mainly faced the political problems of the world, its Specialized
Agencies were charged with work of equal, if not greater, importance in the
economic, educational, scientific and cultural spheres. Man does not live by
politics alone, nor indeed wholly by economics. And so UNESCO came to
represent something that was vital to human existence and progress. Even
as the United Nations General Assembly represented the political will of the
world community, UNESCO tried to represent the finer and deeper sides of
human life and indeed might be said to represent the conscience of the world
community.
I should like to remind you of the Preamble to the Constitution of this great
Organisation. This embodies a declaration on behalf of the governments of the
States and their peoples and lays down:
‘That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the
defences of peace must be constructed.
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
That ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause,
throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the
peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken
into war;
That the great and terrible war which has now ended was a war made
possible by the denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality
and mutual respect of men, and by the propagation, in their place, through
ignorance and prejudice, of the doctrine of the inequality of men and races;
That the wide diffusion of culture and education of humanity for justice and
liberty and peace are indispensible to the dignity of man and constitute a
sacred duty which all the nations must fulfil in a spirit of mutual assistance
and concern;
That a peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements
of governments would not be a peace which could secure the unanimous,
lasting and sincere support to the peoples of the world, and that the peace
must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral
solidarity of mankind.’
Here is laid down in clear and nobel language the basic approach of this
Organisation and the way it was to travel if it was to attain its objectives of
international peace and of the common welfare of mankind.
UNESCO has considerable achievements to its credit during its ten years of
existence, and yet, after these ten years, what do we find? Violence and hatred
still dominate the world. The doctrine of the inequality of men and races is
preached and practised, the democratic principles of dignity, equality and
mutual respect are denied or ignored, some countries dominate over others
and hold their people in subjection, denying them freedom and the right to
grow, and armed might is used to suppress the freedom of countries. UNESCO
does not concern itself with political questions and it would not be right for us
to raise them in this gathering. But UNESCO is intimately concerned with the
dignity of man and the vital importance of freedom.
We see today in Egypt as well as in Hungary both human dignity and freedom
outraged and the force of modern arms used to suppress peoples and to gain
political objectives. Old colonial methods, which we had thought, in our
ignorance, belonged to a more unenlightened age, are revived and practised.
16
Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru
In other parts of the world also, movements for freedom are crushed by
superior might.
It is true that atomic and hydrogen bombs have not thus far been used. But
who can confidently say that they will not be used? The Preamble of the
UNESCO Constitution says, as I have quoted, that wars begin in the minds of
men. We have been living through a period of ‘cold war’ which has now broken
out into open and violent warfare. If we have closed the minds of men with the
thoughts of cold war, can we be surprised at its inevitable result?
You will forgive me if I speak with some feeling. I would be untrue to myself
or to this distinguished gathering if I did not refer to something which has
moved us deeply and which must be in the minds of all of us here. We use
brave phrases to impress ourselves and others. But our actions belie those
noble sentiments. And so we live in a world of unreality where profession has
little to do with practice. When that practice imperils the entire future of the
world, then it is time that we come back to reality in our thinking and in our
action. At present, it would appear that great countries think that the only
reality is force and violence, and that fine phrases are merely the apparatus
of diplomacy. This is a matter which concerns all of us, in whichever quarter
of the world we may live. But, in a sense, it concerns us in Asia and Africa
more perhaps than in other countries, for some of our countries have recently
emerged into freedom and independence, and we cherish them with all our
strength and passion. We are devoting ourselves to serve our people and to
better their lives and to make them grow in freedom and progress. We have
bitter memories of the past when we were prevented from so growing, and
we can never permit a return to that past age. And yet, we find an attempt
made to reverse the current of history and of human development. We find
that all our efforts at progress might well be set at naught by the ambitions
and conflicts of other peoples. Are we not to feel deeply when our life’s work is
imperilled and our hopes and dreams shattered?
Many of the countries in Asia laid down a set of five principles which we
have called ‘Panch-shil’, for the governance of international relations and
for peaceful coexistence of nations, without interference with each other, so
that each nation and people might grow according to its own genius and in
co-operation with others. These five principles are in full conformity with
the noble ideals of the UNESCO Constitution. We see now that those five
principles are also mere words without meaning to some countries who claim
the right of deciding problems by superior might.
17
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
I have called this great assembly the conscience of the world community. The
problems we have to face, many and complicated as they are, will never be
solved except on the basis of good morals and conscience. It is for this reason
that I beg of you, distinguished delegates from nations of the world, to pay
heed to this collapse of conscience and good morals that we see around us, for
unless we do so, all your fine ideals and the good work you have done will be
shattered into nothingness.
May I venture to point out to you also that a world Organisation like this
cannot be properly constituted or function adequately if a large section
of the world remains unrepresented here. I hope that three countries
which have recently attained their independence- the Sudan, Tunisia and
Morocco- will soon find a place in this Organisation to share the burdens
and responsibilities of its labours. But I would especially refer to the People’s
Government of China and the six hundred million people who live in that
great country and have so far not been represented here.
The countries of Europe and America are fortunate in some ways for they have
attained a measure of well being. We in Asia and Africa still lack the primary
necessities of life. To obtain these becomes, therefore, our first task. And we
cannot do so with war and violence. I earnestly trust that the meeting of this
Organisation, in this ancient city of Delhi, will turn your minds more to the
needs of these underdeveloped countries of the world which hunger for bread
and education and health but which, above all, cherish freedom and will not
part with it at any price.
Our country of India is a large one and our population is considerable, but
we have no desire to interfere with any other country. We have no hatreds
and we have been nurtured, under the inspiring guidance of our great leader,
Mahatma Gandhi, in the ways of peace. We want to be friends with all the
world. We know our own failings and seek to overcome them, so that we may
be of service to our own people and to the world.
I have spoken to you out of my heart, but I have done so with all humility for I
know that we have men and women of wisdom and long experience here, and
it is not for me to tell you what you should do and what you should not do.
But, since it is one of the objectives of the UNESCO organisation to have a free
exchange of ideas in the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth, I have ventured
to place before you some of the thoughts I have in mind...’
18
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
©UNESCO, Press Information Bureau,
Government of India
(1888–1958)
First Minister of Education (1947–1958)
President of UNESCO General Conference 1956
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
The Minister of Education’s speech on 5th November, 1956
‘If we were to look back and think of the world as it was only a few decades
ago, we would have to admit that a gathering like the present one could not
have been held. The world was then divided into two castes, the so-called
superior European world and the more or less depressed countries of Asia
and Africa. It is only in the present decade, after the last world war, that the
world is becoming one in the sense that countries, whether of West or of East,
can stand shoulder to shoulder on a common platform. Such a session as this
which I have the honour to address today would not have been possible before
the last war. We were still an inferior caste, a subject people. Today, we share
a common brotherhood of free and equal nations which alone can make true
international understanding possible. The world has not suffered in vain.
The travails of war have led to the birth of a new and resurgent Asia. That
is how we have today this resplendent gathering in an Asian capital where
representatives of Europe and America are meeting Asians and Africans on
terms of complete equality to discuss the common problems of the world.
I am fully aware that the historical circumstances which in the past had
created an individious wall between the Western and the Eastern worlds have
not entirely disappeared. Vestiges of that wall still remain and are the cause of
misunderstanding and tension. The old attitudes and values which made and
strengthened the wall of division have however lost their hold on the minds of
men. It is now obvious that sooner or later they must give way to truly modern
and democratic values. Colonialism, which was at once the pillar and the
symbol of the old world, is now so discredited that even those who still practise
it in some form or other are apologetic about it…
First and foremost among UNESCO’s programmes are those of fundamental
education which have been initiated in several countries under its leadership
or inspiration. There is growing recognition throughout the world that
education does not mean the cultivation of the mind and the intellect alone.
It also entails the all-round development of personality in the context of social
and economic progress of the community. This broadening of the concept
of what were, in earlier days, programmes of adult education is mainly
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
the result of studies initiated by UNESCO. We in India have benefited by
these UNESCO studies and formulated a five point programme of social
education which aims at the enrichment of personal and community life for
all. UNESCO has not only initiated these studies but also helped many of the
member countries by undertaking programmes of training and the loan of
experts on an international basis.
Nor must we forget the attempts of UNESCO to ensure that free and
compulsory elementary education is provided for all children in all countries
of the world. UNESCO has always stressed that economic progress is itself
a function of widespread education. It has, therefore, spared no efforts to
persuade Member States to accept such programmes as rapidly as possible.
Another field of UNESCO’s assistance that has been of special value is
technical assistance to underdeveloped and undeveloped countries. In the
pursuit of this programme. UNESCO has discovered that the terms of
‘underdeveloped’ and ‘undeveloped’ are fluid, and assistance, in order to be
truly effective, must in many cases be a two-way traffic. We in India have
been happy to receive technical assistance in certain fields of scientific and
technological studies and in our turn have offered assistance by way of experts
in educational and cultural matters to countries who have needed them.
Another field in which UNESCO’s contribution has become increasingly
important is that of promoting better cultural understanding among different
peoples and regions. One of the main causes of international tension and
misunderstanding is ignorance and prejudice. For more than a century,
Europeans thought civilization meant Western civilization. Superior military
might of the West was identified with higher moral and cultural excellence.
The shock of two world wars and the gradual decay of colonialism has helped
in instilling a greater sense of equality among the peoples of the world. This
feeling of common humanity cannot, however, be consolidated unless peoples
of different countries have greater understanding of and respect for one
another’s culture. UNESCO’s programme of cultural interpretation by means
of translations of classics, publication of art albums, recordings of music and
exchange of cultural personnel among different peoples of the world is one of
the most important ways in which better understanding among nations can be
established…
It was in pursuit of the same end that UNESCO became concerned with the
way in which history is taught. In most countries history is often another
22
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
name for national self-glorification. What makes it worse is that such
self-glorification is usually achieved through denying or diminishing the
contribution of other peoples and nations. In some cases, there is even active
propagation of hate for other countries and cultures. It is obvious that there
cannot be a truly international outlook so long as children from their early
days are taught to exalt their own nations at the cost of others. Most histories
until now have emphasized the facts of discord and struggle. There has been
a tendency to emphasize the competition among individuals and nations
regardless of the fact that it is co-operation and not competition which has
made human survival possible. UNESCO has from its very inception stressed
that the teaching of history must be reoriented, and has taken action in this
behalf. Its project for a scientific and cultural history of mankind will, when
completed, be a major contribution to better understanding and fellowship
among men and women all over the world.
Apart from this massive study of human co-operation through the ages,
UNESCO has also undertaken or initiated the study of some of the specific
concepts which cause tension among individuals and nations. Racial
arrogance is even today one of the dark spots in the record of man. UNESCO
has always fought against racial arrogance and pride. Studies initiated by it
have led to the rebuttal of many popular superstitions. In spite of increasing
recognition throughout the world that ideas of racial superiority or inferiority
have no basis in fact, there are still unfortunately certain regions of the
world where racial discrimination is rampant. UNESCO must fight this evil
wherever it exists with all the strength at its command.
In its efforts to achieve greater understanding between nations, UNESCO
has also initiated scientific studies in some of the basic social and political
concepts. In 1947, its sponsored the study of the concept of human rights and
thus helped in the formulation of the universal declaration of the fundamental
rights of man. Later, it initiated a study of the concept of democracy and,
perhaps for the first time, brought together thinkers from the Communist and
the capitalist countries in a common search for the essential ingredients of
democracy. These and other studies have helped in clearing misunderstanding
and in indicating the way in which different ideologies may be expressed in
common terms…
..In the past, the main reasons for... clashes have been territorial or economic.
In earlier days wars were often fought on the basis of territory, religion or
race. Sometimes there were wars for survival, because, with the limited supply
23
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
of food, any increase in population created situation of crisis. We have thus
records of movements of people from one country to another in pursuit of the
means of livelihood. In the 18th and 19th centuries, wars in Europe were fought
on the grounds of nationalism or language. Outside Europe, there were many
wars which resulted from the colonial ambitions of the Western countries.
Very soon the world was divided into nations of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. These
colonial struggles culminated in World War I.
In the modern world, these earlier causes of war have become largely obsolete.
With scientific and technological advance there is no reason today why
everyone should not have enough to live in comfort. If the increase in the
population of the world can be regulated- and here again education must
play the most important role- the economic causes for the struggle among
individuals and nations will have disappeared. Nor is colonialism any longer
a vital force. In major parts of the world, it is a thing of the past. Even where
it exists, its days are numbered. With increasing recognition of the principle
of self-determination in different regions of the world, wars on the basis of
geographical and language consideration are also largely out-moded.
If men were rational, there has never before been a better prospect for peace
than there is today…’
24
Mr. Malcolm Adiseshiah
©UNESCO Archives, Paris
(1910–1994)
Former Deputy Director-General at
UNESCO (1963–1970)
Mr. Malcolm Adiseshiah
Poem ‘Its time to begin’ from Change- The Bowel of
development. Adiseshaih’s Inaugural Address at Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom, 1970
Change is development.
Development is Man.
May they abide by and with us.
Creation made for man
Is continually re-created
By Man
In an unending process
Change and development
One
With the essence of man
Soul and being
Fulfilled
In the search for the yet to be found
No man too small
To add
His all to the creation
Too poor
For a re-creation
Centre of a universe
Created for him
Dreaming of stars
Vision
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
Translated into reality.
The sage, the Mahatma, prophet
Within the reach
Of a discarded village
Crouching in the slums
In some forgotten caste
Or born
In a despised race.
Eternity
There to be moulded
Ageless and timeless our cultures,
Ageless and timeless our peoples
Yet bound within one time
The present
To hand on to the future
A kingdom to be inherited
Beyond the nation
It is all the world
Quarrels and forgiveness
Naught but a family affair
Development more than a railroad
More than a bowl of rice,
More than the calculations
Economists use
Or sociologists
Ponder over
Part of the eternal being
Incarnated and re-incarnated
The challenge of ideals
To be
Translated into reality.
It is time to begin.
28
Shri. Rajiv Gandhi
(1944–1991)
Former Prime Minister of India (1984–1989)
Shri. Rajiv Gandhi
Address at the 121st Session of the Executive Board,
June, 1985
“It is an honour to be in UNESCO, which Jawaharlal Nehru called the
‘conscience of the world community’. The purpose of UNESCO in the words
of Dr. Radhakrishnan, the philosopher who became our President, is to foster
liberality, understanding and freedom, the ‘truths of the spirit’.
UNESCO’s vocation is to promote international co-operation in the fields of
education, science, culture and communication. It is possible for a person to
have gone to school and yet be uncultured. It is also possible to be uneducated
in the formal sense, yet cultured, as millions of people who are bred on orally
transmitted wisdom are. One may be so exclusively immersed in a highly
specialized discipline as to be impervious to larger impulse. A few years ago
we used to hear debate led to the introduction of the humanities and social
sciences in science courses. The rigid categories of yesterday are giving way to
broader-based scientific disciplines.
We are becoming increasingly aware of the interrelationship of various
branches of knowledge and of various phenomena. Sages with insight have
always known and proclaimed the wholeness of life and of knowledge. But
lesser people, as in the story of the blind man and the elephant, claim that
only their own perception is valid. Science has begun to obliterate the dividing
line between matter and energy, between the living and the non-living.
Education has a key role to play in understanding the world, in coping with
life, in adding savour to existence. There is practically no country in the world
which is satisfied with its educational system. For centuries education was
the preserve of the few. But all societies now are casting aside old hierarchies,
castes and vested interests. Education has come to be regarded as a basic
human right.
True education, Ruskin said, is training which makes people ‘happiest in
themselves and also most serviceable to others’. One of the basic functions of
education is evidently to make a person productive. But it is more important
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
to enlarge his total personality. Excessive emphasis on the utilitarian has
led to the materialism that bedevils modern life. In fact, it is not even very
practical. The acquisition of today’s vocational skills will not suffice when
technologies are changing fast. The silicon chip has already joined the wheel,
steampower and the internal combustion engine as a major turning-point in
the development of technology. The technological revolution, which is upon
us, is changing the types of occupation, patterns of employment, levels of
productivity and techniques of training. What serves is not just a skill but
the skill to imbibe new skills, a mind that can cope with new situations and
challenges, a temperament that is confident, co-operative and creative…
Civilization such as India’s, which stretch back into antiquity, have a special
responsibility to ensure that they modernize themselves without losing the
inner core of their spirituality and traditions. ‘Tradition’, said Indira Gandhi,
who represented India on UNESCO’s Executive Board for several years, ‘is not
just the past. It is part of the past which lives on in the present, and enables
the people to face the challenges of the future.’
UNESCO has done notable work in helping to preserve such priceless
treasures of the human heritage as Abu Simbel, Mohanjodaro, the Acropolis,
Bamiyan and Borobodur. India is seeking the Organisation’s support in
preserving our monuments at Ajanta, Ellora, Mahabalipuram, Konark
and that marvel in marble, the Taj Mahal at Agra. Just as ensuring that
archaeological monuments withstand the elements, societies must also
be helped to conserve their songs and stories. Inculcation of an instinct of
conservation is the best antidote to the exploitative tendency.
In science, the emphasis has been too much on utility and not so much on the
joy of discovering the laws that govern natural phenomena, on casting aside
prejudice, on being ready to give up what is not tenable. Science has been
so submissive to the purpose of the State that the globe is today burdened
with a destructive power which can extinguish all life and reduce us to a
planet of grey ash and silence. Martin Luther King bemoaned that we have
guided missiles and misguided men. Working for peace is one of the functions
assigned to UNESCO by its very charter.
The peoples of the world must know more about one another. Modern
communications, it is said, have made the world a global village. We in India
are indeed using satellite technology to take the world to everyone’s doorstep.
But people very often are at the mercy of the media. More information must
32
Shri. Rajiv Gandhi
lead to greater strength for the individual, and not greater manipulation of
his mind by image-builders and propagators of prejudice. Excessive power
over the means of communication on the part of a handful of countries is not
conducive to real freedom as it affects the right to inform and the right to be
informed of people in the less developed countries. UNESCO’s Constitution
asks it to promote communication in order to foster understanding. In so
doing, it is not our desire to put information in any straitjacket or to suborn
the institutions of others. We support UNESCO’s New World Information and
Communication Order in order to ensure the participation of all peoples in
life-enhancing knowledge.
UNESCO has problems. We know that almost all international organizations
are under pressure today because strong nations have tried to bend them to
their purposes. There is an unfortunate retreat from multilateralism and
internationalism. All who care for a saner and more equitable world order
must come to the help of UNESCO in its hour of trial. India will support
any constructive effort which will resolve UNESCO’s dilemma. There is no
human institution which cannot work better than it is doing. But to turn away
from UNESCO is to turn away from universal co-operation and to reject the
democracy of international relations in world bodies.
Human history is a story of bondage and freedom, of strife and harmony,
of rivalry and co-operation, of aggression and accommodation. As the great
Indian saint, Guru Nanak, proclaimed, man is born to be free. History is
basically the record of man’s search for freedom, for beauty, for meaning and
fulfillment. It is only through acceptance of coexistence, through a willingness
to preserve the wonderful diversity of the earth, through seeking the new and
fusing it with the old, that civilization, built with the bricks of education,
science and culture, can be preserved and enriched.
‘I shall tell you a great secret, my friend’, wrote Albert Camus, ‘do not wait
for the last judgement. It takes place every day.’ It is inner strength and
repose that help us to survive that judgement. UNESCO must build not only
defences against war in the minds of men and women, but defences against
dehumanization and preoccupation with narrow self-interests.”
33
Dr. Sarvepalli Gopal
(1923–2002)
Noted Historian
Former Member of the UNESCO
Executive Board (1976–1980)
Dr. Sarvepalli Gopal
‘Nehru, The Man and His Vision’-An International seminar
to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of his birth
organized by UNESCO in co-operation with Government of
India, UNESCO House, 27–29th September, 1989
‘Nehru and World Understanding
It is appropriate for UNESCO to commemorate the centenary of the birth
of Jawaharlal Nehru, for he was more than just the prime minister of
India, and his efforts and his ideals have current meaning for the whole world
and are not merely for his country alone. Himself, like all his great Indian
contemporaries, balanced between the two cultures of East and West, he had
developed early a keen international sense and his intense commitment to his
own people was always poised on the broader platform of the necessity for
world understanding and harmony. A firm supporter of the United Nations,
even at times at the cost of his own country’s interests, because he regarded
the organization as having been set up to bear the burdens and sorrows of the
world, he had a special concern for UNESCO which represented for him the
conscience of the world community. He saw that, while the United Nations,
on its political side, took the world as it was, UNESCO sought to change the
world and prepare us for a better future. His only direct participation in the
work of UNESCO was the inauguration of the General Conference at Delhi
in 1956, but no individual of his time acted more than Nehru, throughout his
years of responsibility, in the spirit of the UNESCO constitution.
The promotion of peace, as UNESCO has clearly recognized, is more than a
matter of political negotiations and the reconciliation of interests. It involves
the creation of a proper mental and psychological climate in the world, and
the first prerequisite of such a climate, where humanity dignity can grow, is
freedom. Prominent in the national movement in India, Nehru took care to
guard it from narrow chauvinism. He stressed that freedom, like peace, was
indivisible, and that Indians, striving for their own liberty, should stretch
out their hands to fellow-fighters for freedom in other parts of the world. He
also emphasized that the common cause itself should not look solely inwards
and that indigenous traditions should interplay with the thoughts and that
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
indigenous traditions should interplay with the thoughts and philosophies
of the outside world. Both Gandhi and Nehru were uncompromising fighters
against imperialism. Yet Gandhi insisted that one should resist the sin and
not the sinner, and Nehru never failed to see that it is the system which
breeds imperialism that has to be combated rather than just the agents of it.
An understanding of the forces which govern colonialism strengthens anticolonial resistance.
Freedom, once won, has to be safeguarded by positive effort. Nehru became
prime minister in August 1947 just when the cold war intensified. Even a
few months earlier, when it had become clear that India would soon be free,
he had convened in Delhi a conference of Asian leaders to re-establish links
between their peoples. For too long Asia had been the plaything of the colonial
powers now the message was sent out that the world was larger than Europe
and the developing countries would not inherit the problems of the Western
world. They would stand on their own feet and take their own decisions. If
Gandhi stood for the self-respect of individuals, Nehru asserted the self-respect
of peoples. The foreign policy of free India demonstrated her independence
but yet linked it with a wider commitment to the world community. An
active concern in world affairs went along with a refusal to take sides in
the cold war and the application of reason and honest intelligence to all
problems. While sensitive to India’s interests as he saw them, Nehru strove
to reconcile them with civilized values- freedom, modernization, development
and the strengthening of peace everywhere. The foreign policy of the newly
free countries should be the articulation of the rational person’s duty to pose
long-term objectives against immediate ends. No country could be certain
that it was wholly in the right and its adversary totally wrong. “The spirit of
liberty is that spirit which is not too sure that it is right.” So it is a matter of
trying to do what one thinks right and, in the process, seeking to be friendly
and cooperative with other countries even of in disagreement. The enduring
element of Nehru’s policy is a mental outlook, the exercise of independent
judgment untrammelled by the viewpoints of the greater powers. The general
sense of such an attitude has today entered into the climate of world thought
and become an integral strand of the international pattern. It is now part
of the conventional wisdom of the third world and has even seeped into the
atmosphere of Europe.
An obvious aspect of the stabilization of peace, based on the freedom of all
peoples, is racial equality. It could be expected that the Indian national
movement, with the direct example before them of Mahatma Gandhi’s long
38
Dr. Sarvepalli Gopal
years of civilized struggle in South Africa, would regard opposition to racial
discrimination as a prime commitment. When Nehru and the other leaders
of that movement came to power, they challenged the theory and the practice
of racial arrogance and made clear that they would prefer any consequences
to submission to this evil. Africa, in Nehru’s phrase, “a vital continent,”
was India’s neighbour across the seas and the promotion of the African
personality to its full stature was a responsibility which India should do
her utmost to fulfil. While Nehru regretted such violence as occurred in the
struggles for freedom in various parts of Africa, he was firm in his view that
in face of the intense provocations of the of the colonial powers there was
really no alternative to resistance. Talk of the virtues of multi-racial societies
and condemnation of resort to arms were meaningless in face of the heavy
offensives of imperialism; and nothing could be worse than brutal racial
oppression. On the major problem of apartheid, from the time he became
prime minister Nehru made this an issue which concerned the whole world
and on which there could be no compromise. He gave unreserved support
to those battling against apartheid, raised the matter continuously at the
United Nations and seriously considered secession from the Commonwealth
if South Africa were permitted to remain a member. Keeping faith with the
African people at all levels was one of Nehru’s basic contributions to world
understanding.
Even in the matter of disarmament. Nehru realized that it was not enough to
talk about reduction of armaments. The danger from nuclear weapons was
accentuated by the atmosphere of fear, with every nation trying frantically
to get the new weapon or adequate protection from it. But this was the way
of madness, and that way would not be banned by a surface, mechanical
approach seeking bargains on the quantity of weapons on either side. To
Gandhi non-violence had always been a moral imperative. Nehru had at first
accepted it as a tactical expedient in the struggle against imperial rule; but
by 1945 he was convinced that non-violence was a compulsive for the world.
The only real safeguard against death dealing weapons of a catastrophic
nature was to train humanity never to need to resort to such weapons. More
important than disarmament in the physical sense was to disarms the minds
of men and woman, free them from hatred and the spirit of violence, and train
them to see that means were as important as ends. Until this came about
peace would only be a pause between wars and disaster on an inconceivable
scale could not be ruled out. Here obviously, as Nehru recognized, UNESCO,
concerned with the deeper and finer sides of human life, can do much to create
confidence and break down the walls of mistrust.
39
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
The creation of mutual confidence among the peoples of the world also
assumes a lack of acute economic disparity and a minimum standard of
living everywhere. There can be no real peace if large sections of humanity
are sunk in steep poverty. Equality and sharing are the foundations of stable
national societies as they are of a world community. The model Nehru set up
for India to achieve economic betterment and social fairness cannot be said
to have been as yet achieved in full measure. But he placed his country on the
right path. He taught his people that, utilizing the methods and resources of
science, involving the people in decision-making at all levels, and giving the
topmost priority to education, a modern, industrialized, rational, forwardlooking society can be realized. By doing so, he also provided an example for
other peoples. Nehru came nearest to giving a satisfying answer to the prime
question of our times how can economic development and social equality be
attained by persuasive, participatory means in under-developed societies? In
recent times more and more nations are increasing coming round to his view
that participation is integral to development, that liberty is a vital part of
progress, and that openness to the world is the right of every human being.
So when we celebrate the centenary of his birth it is no mere matter of pious
sentiment. Nehru is more than a man of his own time. His vision is based
on the necessity of tolerance, the power of reason, the virtue of choices. His
influence, like that of Gandhi, has become part of the social consciousness
of humanity, and he has still much to teach us on the various aspects of the
promotion of world understanding...’
40
Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao
(1921–2004)
Former Prime Minister of India (1991–1996)
Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao
Inaugural Lecture at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial
Lecture Series Commemorating 125th Anniversary of the
birth of Gandhi in 1995
‘It gives me great pleasure to speak before this distinguished gathering
about the life, work and vision of Mahatma Gandhi, the tallest Indian of the
twentieth century, on this occasion when we commemorate his 125th birth
anniversary here at UNESCO. Gandhi is one among a very select group
of truly eminent world leaders in our century...leads me to reappraise the
relevance of the Gandhian legacy to the people of India, and the relevance of
the Mahatma’s vision to the future of humanity.
Over and above the debate on Gandhian theory and practice in India,
it is appropriate that UNESCO should celebrate the Mahatma’s birth
anniversary as an event of worldwide significance. Gandhi can well and truly
be described as the greatest theorist and practitioner of non-violence and
tolerance in our times. He also sought to awaken a novel moral consciousness
in humankind. It is, therefore, natural that thinkers of sensitivity and
distinction throughout the world should reflect upon what he said- and how
he acted-in order to gain a fuller understanding of his discourse and its
implications for the future, as humanity approaches a new millennium.
The founding Charter of UNESCO places upon it a profound responsibility
in promoting creative interaction between different cultures and world-views,
just as it also placed upon this Organisation the responsibility of bringing
the people of the world together in mutual understanding and in peaceful
coexistence. The Constitution of UNESCO states that “since wars begin in
the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defence of peace must be
constructed.” This is a sentiment entirely Gandhian in letter and spirit, since
the violence and conflict in the minds of men and women, Gandhi believed, lay
at the very roots of the anguish and discord of our times. For this very reason,
once the minds of men and women are rid of violence and conflict, not only
individuals and communities within Nations, but also Nations within the
world community, could come together in creative endeavour to meet the great
challenges that face them.
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
I am deeply conscious of the fact that we are meeting today in the beautiful
city of Paris, which occupies so distinctive a place in philosophical reflection
and in humanist thought in the contemporary world. I am, therefore,
encouraged to raise some basic questions about the human condition. When we
turn to the fundamental issues of our times: the questions of war and peace in
the nuclear age; the problems of production and distribution in a post-modern
era; and the globalisation of economic and information systems, which have
at once combined as well as segregated a variety of identities, then the need for
discourses which address themselves to these questions and find imaginative
answers to them becomes compelling. I believe that those engaged in reflection
on these issues will profit greatly by examining Gandhian thought and action.
The content and range of the ideas expressed by the Mahatma, no less than his
translation of those ideas into practice, are indeed remarkable in many ways.
In any exploration of the seminal ideas generated by Mahatma Gandhi, and
the courses of action he embarked upon, it would be profitable to recall the
cultural milieu in which Gandhi was born in 1869, and the influences,
Indian and Western, which shaped his mind as he reached adulthood. Gandhi
was a child in the State of Gujarat in western India, which State has looked
across the waters of the Arabian Sea to West Asia, and to the European world
beyond, since time immemorial. The Gandhi family was a family of status; the
future Mahatma’s father pursued the liberal vocation of civil service in a small
principality.
The third quarter of the nineteenth century was an era in which India had
been fully drawn into the imperial system of Great Britain. Not surprisingly,
this integration affected her material and economic condition, no less than it
affected her social and political condition, in a very disadvantageous fashion.
Yet the colonial situation can best be understood as a situation of dialectical
complexity; the subversion of the economy or the cultural fabric of India was
accompanied by a certain measure of regeneration, in the spheres of social
production as well as in the sphere of intellectual reflection.
While the epicentres of political and economic activity in colonial India,
namely, the port-cities of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, witnessed to the
full the impact of colonial rule, the remote towns of Porbandar and Rajkot in
Gujarat, where the young Gandhi grew up, were largely indigenous in content
and texture. The cultural impact of the West was even more marginal. Indeed,
the emotional and intellectual consciousness of young Gandhi, the notion of
the sacred and the profane in his being, was largely shaped by the saints of
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Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao
devotional Hinduism. These saints wrote lyrical poetry of deep compassion
and profound spiritual content which linked the sensibility of successive
generations of Gujaratis for centuries. Gandhi’s autobiographical writings
reveal the special impact which one of these saints, Narasingh Mehta, made
upon his consciousness. A composition by Mehta, even though its literary
flavour is lost in translation, conveys the social and moral concerns central to
that devotional theism. It says:
He is a vaishnava who identifies himself with others’sorrows
And in doing so has no pride about him
Such a one respects everyone and speaks ill of none...
He labourers neither under infatuation nor delusion...
Narasaiyo says: His presence purifies his surroundings.
These and such values of devotional Hinduism were manifest directly in the
Gandhi household through the intense religiosity of his mother, Putlibai.
This created in the psyche of young Gandhi a sensitivity to matters of the
spirit- indeed, a quality of existential immersion in religious concerns- which
later blossomed into a powerful force behind the adult Gandhi’s intervention
in social, political and economic affairs. But the influence of saintly poets
like Narasingh Mehta was by no means the only influence upon the Gandhi
household. The commercial communities of western India, in pursuit of
an eclecticism so characteristic of the Hindus were also deeply drawn to
the metaphysical principles of Jainism. The Jain way of life rested upon a
calculus of austere rationality, underpinned by a belief in the multifacetedness
of truth, or anekantavada. Belief in this principle enabled a Jain to extend a
sympathetic consideration to points of view other than his own. Indeed, this
remarkable capacity of Jainism profoundly influenced Gandhi in his career as
he led various movements in South Africa and in India.
Gandhi’s journey as a young student to the great metropolis of London to
pursue studies in law, brought him into the very heart of world culture. The
initial shock experienced by the young Gujarati in London was formidable.
But it speaks volumes of his resilience, inner strength and self-confidence, that
he was soon at ease in his new surroundings, combining the study of law with
a widening of the mind through the exploration of Western culture. Here the
influences of his childhood interacted with the new situation and enriched his
intellectual and philosophical experience. Apart from the classics of Hindu
and Buddhist literature, he also read some of the seminal Christian texts.
Further, the social and economic consequences of industrialization made a
45
Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
tremendous impression on his sensitive mind; and probably played a vital
role in shaping his attitude towards industrial societies as a whole. After
completing his studies, Gandhiji returned to Gujarat, still committed to the
notion of making his mark in life as a lawyer.
Yet Gandhi had barely returned to India, when legal business took him to
Pretoria in 1893. South Africa, at this juncture, was a polity in which the
first steps towards the construction of apartheid were being taken by a bigoted
while community. The gross inequality to which coloured and black residents
were subjected Gandhi to the quick, and apart from attending to legal
business, he entered public life in order to combat racial discrimination.
The racial conflict in South Africa, in the last decade of the nineteenth
century, exercised a profound influence upon Gandhi. On the one hand, he
reached out to public activity in order to redress the situation. On the other,
he set upon an interior journey of moral exploration which was destined to
make life a quest for self-realization, as well as an epic struggle against racial
discrimination and political subjugation in Africa and Asia. Gandhiji later
observed of his sojourn in South Africa: “Here it was that the religious force
within me became a living force. I had gone to South Africa... for gaining my
own livelihood. But... I found myself in search of God and striving for selfrealization.”
Gandhi’s anguish at the state of South Africa prompted him to widen his
religious and philosophical education through a critical reading of texts other
than those of Hinduism and Jainism. He also reached out to figures like
John Ruskin, the Christian Socialist; and Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist
and philosopher, who sought to apply the principles of Christianity to the
day-to-day problems of human existence. From Ruskin, Gandhi imbibed the
value of dignity of labour, manual or intellectual; from Tolstoy he gained an
understanding of how love and compassion could change humanity for the
better. But although Gandhiji delved deep into the religious and philosophical
literature of the West, this exploration largely brought out the original
faiths ingrained in him. As an eminent scholar of classical India has put it,
Gandhi’s ideas were [I quote]“Fully in keeping with Indian tradition, and
were probably developed from notions which he absorbed in his contact with
the West... His (Gandhi’s) genius was even more successful than that of earlier
reformers in harmonizing non-Indian ideas with the Hindu Dharma, and
giving them a thoroughly Indian character; and he did this only by relating
them to earlier doctrines or concepts. [End of Quote] (From Prof. A.L. Basham)
46
Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao
The instinctive relationship which Gandhi sought to establish between social
and moral action needs to be spelt out a little, at this juncture, because of the
flood of illuminating light it throws upon his development as a political actor
in South Africa; upon his epic role, slightly later, in the liberation of India;
and upon the promise which Gandhian discourse holds out, for the possible
resolution of the problems which haunt humanity towards the end of the
twentieth century.
Despite assessments to the contrary, it seems reasonable to hold that the
political actor in Gandhi was throughout his long career subordinate to the
moral actor, since the Mahatma was ultimately concerned with individual
and collective salvation, rather than with purely mundane matters. The fires
which raged within Gandhi can best be sensed in his own words [I quote]:
“The politician in me has never dominated a single decision of mine, and if I
seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like
the coils of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one
tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake...Quite selfishly, as I wish to
live in peace in the midst of a bellowing storm howling around me, I have
been experimenting with myself and my friends by introducing religion into
politics. Let me explain what I mean by religion. It is not the Hindu religion
...but the religion...which binds one indissolubly to the truth within and which
ever purifies. [End of Quote]
This creative synthesis, flowing from a fusion of the moral anguish of Gandhi
with his social concerns as a political actor, is eloquently reflected in a novel
and revolutionary mode of political action known to us as satyagraha, or soulforce, which he first crafted in South Africa.
The context in which satyagraha was developed as a political weapon needs
to be highlighted. In 1906, the Government of Transvaal enacted legislation
which required Indians to register themselves as residents, thus denying to
them their natural rights as citizens of the British Empire. To protest against
this ‘Black Act, Gandhiji organized a meeting in Johannesburg. The Mahatma
had contemplated the adoption of a resolution encouraging Indians in South
Africa to resist discriminatory legislation. However, what was designed as
conventional protest against an unjust law, acquired a unique significance
when a participant declared ‘in the name of God that he would never submit
to that law and advised all present to do likewise’. In focusing upon the
heightened moral import of the resolution, Gandhi pointed out that it had
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become something of the highest significance: ‘Everyone must search his own
heart and if the inner voice assures him that he has the requisite strength to
carry him through, then only should he pledge himself and then only will his
pledge bear fruit.’
Thus was born satyagraha as a weapon for fighting untruth and oppression
in the world. As spelt out over time by Gandhi, there were distinctive features
to the moral code of the true satyagraha he believed that truth could have
more than one facet; he further assumed that the conscience of his adversary
could be touched and transformed through non-violent protest; most
important of all, he believed that no truthful contest ever yielded a victor and
a vanquished; instead the reconciliation which followed satyagraha brought
the former adversaries together in a firm bond of friendship underpinned by
their spiritual upliftment.
The potency of satyagraha, the novel instrument of political protest devised by
Gandhi, was reflected in the substantial gains which he was able to secure for
the Indian community in South Africa before he left for India in 1914. General
J.C. Smuts, who negotiated a settlement with Gandhi was, therefore, delighted
when he learnt of the Mahatma’s departure for his homeland. ‘The saint has
left our shores’, Smuts observed, ‘I sincerely, hope forever’. There was another
sequel to the struggle against racial discrimination which Gandhi had waged
in South Africa earlier in the century. The black community and its leaders
too, remembered the power of non-violence; and despite the brutal authority
characterized by the regime of the apartheid, they ultimately triumphed over it
through a non-violent yet militant struggle. When President Nelson Mandela
visited Delhi in 1990, he referred to the Gandhian legacy in South Africa. ‘We
have since been influenced by his (i.e Gandhi’s) perception and tradition of
non-violent struggle,’ he observed.
When Gandhi returned to India in 1914, after an interval of two decades,
he noticed enormous changes in the political scene. By the second decade
of the twentieth century, the middle classes in the subcontinent were fully
drawn into a nationalist stance, ideologically and organizationally. Between
the upper middle classes, on the other hand, and the relatively less well-off
peasants, artisans and workers, on the other, stood a great gulf of wealth
and consciousness which was difficult to bridge through the conventional
mechanisms of modern politics. The colonial State had, in fact, exploited those
who laboured in the fields and factories much more than it had exploited
the middle classes. Yet the nationalism of the well-to-do was articulate and
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Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao
organized, while the nationalism of the poor and deprived lacked organization
and modern ideology. Indeed, the poor could only voice their anguish through
seemingly spontaneous and localized upsurges that were suppressed forthwith
by the colonial State. In fact, even in the nineteenth century, there had been
several small and big uprisings in the tribal areas against the exploitation
by British-backed feudals. Some of them continued for many years, but
eventually all of them collapsed under the weight of superior weapons and
deeper intrigues to divide the tribals. So, in the beginning decades of the
twentieth century, the question of the anguish of the deprived classes being
linked to the aspirations of the middle classes in a purposeful and mass-based
nationalism was the question to which one could provide a ready answer.
When Gandhi addressed himself to the Indian situation in 1914, he chose as
his base the ashram, or the spiritual retreat, as an institution ideally suited
to the work he had in view. His dialogue with the middle classes, at this
juncture, confirmed his view that these classes were united in the desire for
liberation from colonial bondage. Within the span of a few years, he further
discovered that the peasants, artisans and workers, too, saw the overthrow
of British rule as an essential requirement of their material and spiritual
welfare. Since it was difficult reach these classes through the idiom of modern
politics, liberal or radical, Gandhi took recourse to popular religious imagery
as a potent means to rally the poor to the cause of nationalism and at the
same time to heighten the level of their social consciousness. He deliberately
built closer identification with the poor and down-trodden by adopting their
half-naked clothing and hut-dwelling way of life. It was a genuine mingling
of hearts and minds and had a lasting effect. In this process, he discovered
an untapped reservoir of popular energy which he harnessed into nationwide
agitation, based upon the principles of satyagraha.
The initial Gandhian experiments in Satyagraha in India were on a small
scale. They aimed at resolving the grievances of specific groups of peasants
and workers, at the same time as they expanded their political horizons.
When World War I came to an end, in which the people of India had extended
substantial support to Great Britain, Gandhi embarked upon a movement of
satyagraha involving India as a whole. Indeed, in a span of three decades,
Gandhi initiated a number of nationwide protests with two strategic
purposes in view: first, to knit together the different social, linguistic and
religious communities within India into modern nationhood; and secondly, to
demonstrate to the British that their Empire over South Asia would have to be
dismantled at the earliest.
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The nationwide satyagraha campaigns waged by Gandhi within India
rank among the biggest popular mobilizations in the history of humankind.
I have already touched upon the moral consent of satyagraha at its
moment of birth in South Africa in1906. When we relate satyagraha in
South Africa to satyagraha in India, it would be appropriate to evoke the
social dimensions of the latter. The population of India, at that juncture,
was approximately 400 million. Roughly 75 per cent of this population
living in the villages, was the constituency which Gandhi sought to draw
into nationalist politics through satyagrahi action. To say that he fully
succeeded in doing so would be untrue. However, the flag of nationalism
was firmly planted by Gandhi in every substantial village in India; and in
every village of any size a dozen or more peasant households were actively
drawn into the orbit of a struggle. The demographic scale of the nationalist
movement was breathtaking, since it literally mobilized 10 per cent of the
nation, that is, about 40 million persons, in non-violent action against
the greatest imperial power of that period. In fact it succeeded splendidly
because it was non-violent.
Perhaps the dextrous artistry of satyagrahi action and the ingenious manner
in which symbolic action, backed by rudimentary organization, drew tens
upon millions across the land into movements of resistance is poignantly
captured by the Dandi March of 1930. The movement was directed against
a tax on salt, which affected adversely even the poorest peasant household in
India. To signify his disapproval of the tax on salt, Gandhi selected a small
band of devoted followers, 79 in all, representing different sections of Indian
society. The Mahatma and his satyagrahis marched from Ahmedabad, in
Western India, to a village called Dandi, on the Arabian Sea. By traversing
241 miles in measured marches over the period of a few weeks, Gandhi and
his gallant band of satyagrahis united a nation of 400 million against the
British Empire.
The incredible economy of Gandhian action; the inverse relationship between
the scale of satyagraha and the demographic momentum of popular arousal,
illustrate the tactical genius of the Mahatma at the same time as they testify
to the vast numbers of men and women who were drawn into political
action. Indeed the cost-effectiveness of the ‘Short March’- as I would like to
describe the trek from Ahmedabad to Dandi- demonstrates the superiority of
satyagrahi action over conventional modes of political protest, constitutional
or violent. And the crowning feature of that action was, of course, that it was
unarmed, non-violent and therefore repression and suppression-proof.
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Despite the massive and countrywide dimensions of the movement, its absolute
discipline and restrain were remarkable. Gandhi believed firmly in the purity
of the means and in the immutable correspondence between ends and means.
He suspended a countrywide Satyagraha movement abruptly on a single
incident of violence committed by the people at a place called Chowri Chowra
in the State of Uttar Pradesh. So widespread was the disappointment and so
deep the genuine resentment on this suspension that even Jawaharlal Nehru
expressed his serious reservations on the Mahatma’s decision. But Gandhi
stuck to his guns and asserted that the means adopted in any Satyagraha
movement must invariably be non-violent. The movement was suspended but
the message registered in the minds of the people indelibly.
The triumph of non-violent protest over racial discrimination in South
Africa, or colonial domination in South Asia, does not exhaust the creative
potential of satyagraha as an instrument of revolutionary action and social
transformation. Indeed, in its depth and comprehensiveness, Gandhian
thought and action reach out to life in all its rich diversity: to questions of
social production and the distribution of wealth; to the nexus between the
State, civil society and the citizen; to the manner in which the basic unit of
society, namely the family, relates to the individual, on the other hand, and
to the social order, on the other; and last but not least, to the character of the
sacred and the profane as a guide to human beings in their journey across
life to the worlds which lie beyond. The sheer range of Gandhian thought and
practice, therefore, makes it one of the richest sources of reflection and guide to
action today, across the decades which separate us from the vibrant and living
truth of the Mahatma. Its only limitations are those inherent in the society
and the State. But who, except God, is immune to limitations?
Any inquiry into the contemporary relevance of satyagrahi thought and
practice should locate itself in Gandhi’s understanding of non-violence, no less
than in his ubterstanding of social power as the basis of political action. The
Mahatma repeatedly observed that non-violence, in his view, was the weapon
of the strong rather than of the weak; just as it was also a weapon which drew
victor and vanquished into a common association of reconciliation and moral
regeneration. Gandhi’s concept of power was of a piece with his understanding
of non-violence. Not surprisingly, he looked askance at the power which grew
out of the barrel of the gun, or rested upon the ephemeral calculus of wealth.
For the Mahatma, the most legitimate form of power came through welding
together popular aspirations and the life of truth into a movement of social
transformation and moral upliftment. The struggles which he set in motion in
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South Africa, and later in India, were excellent examples of the aggregation of
non-violent power and its use in the social and political domain for the good of
the people.
What are the likely, possible and desirable arenas of satyagrahi action in
our times? Since we are located in an age, when the complete annihilation
of human civilization through weapons of mass destruction continues to be
a possibility, it is relevant to ask whether the Mahatma’s concept of conflict
resolution has any role to play in relations between sovereign Nations as well
as those between different sections within the States. At the risk of touching
upon a theme which may appear parochial yet has a worldwide potential
that needs to be explored, I would contend that the Gandhian sense of power
profoundly influenced the foreign policy of India after independence in 1947.
This policy, as is well known, sought to bring together the newly liberated
nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America- with their common memory of
domination- on a common platform to confer self-confidence upon polities
which lacked the sinews of conventional strength in the post-World War II era.
As classically formulated, Non-Alignment probably assumes a different
significance from the one it had in the third quarter of our century. But as a
principle of equity and sanity, which enabled the developing nations to speak
with a voice of dignity in the fora of the world, Non-Alignment is as relevant
today as it was when it was enunciated. Although the Non-Aligned Movement
took shape in 1962, the concept predates Indian independence. The principle
was clearly enunciated in a resolution of the Working Committee of the Indian
National Congress in 1946. Yet in relating Gandhian principles to the conduct
of world affairs, I want to go beyond Non-Alignment, to touch upon the vital
issue of nuclear disarmament in our times. Indeed, our deep commitment to
Gandhian values, as a nation which looks up to the Mahatma as its most
eminent citizen in the twentieth century, is eloquently reflected in the proposal
which we initiated in 1988, for a phased and universal programme of nuclear
disarmament. Rajiv Gandhi articulated this vision to rid the world of nuclear
weapons at the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on
Disarmament. As heirs to Mahatma Gandhi, we look upon our proposal for
universal nuclear disarmament as Gandhian in spirit, just as we look upon
it as a measure which can make the world a safer place for generations yet
to come. Since UNESCO is dedicated to the promotion of world peace, I take
this opportunity to reiterate the outline of this essentially Gandhian proposal
for universal nuclear disarmament. I commend this proposal before these
assembled men and women of scholarship in the conviction that they will so
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Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao
influence world opinion that the dream of universal nuclear disarmament will
become a reality within a finite, stipulated time.
The question of nuclear disarmament is only one of the issues on the agenda
of satyagrahi action in our times. No less significant are issues relating to the
generation of wealth between and within nations in the world community; or
questions pertaining to the articulation of local and regional identities within
existing polities; and finally, to the vulnerability of the Nation-State itself,
in the face of emerging supranational regional organizations and changing
technological and information systems. I shall touch upon these problems
separately, with a view to locating them within the Gandhian discourse. I
shall also try to draw from the Gandhian discourse, possible lines of solution
to these problems.
Perhaps, it would be appropriate to dwell upon the question of wealth
generation and its distributions, in the first instance. There is a widespread
yet erroneous belief, within India as well as outside India, that Gandhi
lacked a full understanding of industrial societies; and that he may have
been dismissive about the increasing pace and impact of industrialization in
the twentieth century. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As a student
of law in London, Gandhi explored industrialization in Great Britain
intensively and set out his understanding of this phenomenon in a work
called ‘Hind Swaraj’. The Mahatma’s quarrel was not with industrialization
as such uit with situations which reduced human beings to helpless
instruments of technology in the name of development. This dehumanization
was anathema to Gandhi, whether it emanated in the Capitalist system or
the Communist system. I still remember how Gandhi was condemned in
both camps, whatever may be the encomiums he is earning after he died.
His trusteeship principle, namely that those who posses wealth must do so
as trustees of the poor, was equally inconvenient to both camps and sounded
very odd at the time, as it does even today prima facie. Yet I wish thinkers
of today to go into this principle deeply. I have every hope that economic
relations eventually will need to be redefined on the basis of a new meaning
to be attached to the concepts of ownership and possession. The assertion
that all land belongs to God is fully ingrained in Indian thought since time
immemorial and Gandhi’s principle derives from it.
These concerns were wedded to two additional concerns which had not been
expressed by any of Gandhi’s contemporaries, though they are forcefully
articulated among ‘green’ activists today; namely, the baneful consequences
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Paths to Peace: India’s Voices in UNESCO
of mindless consumerism, on the one hand; and the need for eco-friendly
development, on the other. In his writings on social and economic questions,
which are exploratory rather than definitive, Gandhi anticipates the notion
of sustainable development at the same time as he expresses the need for
devising systems of social production and environmental protection which
are supportive rather than antagonistic towards each other. The views of
the Mahatma on such issues, which are sustained by an acute sense of the
practical and the desirable, constitute a rich source of insights about economic
growth in developing and developed societies. He asserted, crisply, that in
God’s creation, there is enough for man’s need but not for man’s greed.
Gandhi’s plea for sustainable development did not exhaust his concern for
the processes of growth in modern society. Indeed, if only tangentially, he
was deeply concerned with market and command systems as engines of
increasing production in the modern world. That the market, if left to its
own devices, becomes an obstruction rather than a stimulus to production,
is one of the central arguments in Hind Swaraj, to which I have referred
earlier. Yet the Mahatma was equally aware of the fact that command
systems of social production, too, can throw up their own distinctive
pathologies.
Since the genesis of Indian culture in classical antiquity, there exists in our
collective consciousness a deeply lodged belief that in the social, no less than in
the metaphysical domain, the ‘middle path’ is the most desirable of all paths.
This notion was initially articulated by Gautama Buddha in the sixth century
BC at the first flowering of our civilization. Men of politics no less than men of
religion were deeply influenced by this notion over the centuries. In the years
since 1947, the notion of the middle path was one of the central principles
behind official policies- particularly policies of economic growth. Very recently,
the notion of the ‘middle path’ has been reiterated in respect of initiatives
connected with economic growth. What sustains this remarkable continually
is probably the epic scale of Indian society and the culturally plural cluster of
communities which constitute its social body.
The notion of the middle path as a sensible means to economic growth is
powerfully endorsed in the writings of the Mahatma on social and economic
questions, though these writings are tentative and exploratory. And its
legitimacy goes even deeper in the Indian past. Here is a fertile field for
intellectual inquiry by those engaged in reflection on economic issues, no less
than for those engaged in social action, in different parts of the world.
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Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao
Last but not least, I would like to speak of the great political disquiet of our
times, as it stems from the crisis of identities, particularly local and regional
identities, within the system of Nation-States. Gandhi was very alive to issues
of identity, partly because of the plural character of the Indian society and
partly also because the creation of modern nationhood in India, in the place
of an older civilizational bond, meant the generation of an entirely novel
overarching identity. The satyagrahi Mahatma Gandhi handled this task with
a sensitivity and skill rare in the history of social and political movements in
our times.
What were the factors behind Gandhi’s conspicuous success in mobilizing
different social groups in support of the struggle for nationhood in India?
Further, to what extend are these factors relevant to the handling of issues
of local and regional identities within nations in the world today? There can
be no easy answers to these questions, since the problem is one of tremendous
complexity. However, the manner in which Gandhi conceptualized the role
of the citizen in the modern State; and the manner also in which he actually
drew the citizen into social and political activity provides clues to the reasons
behind his success. At the very outset, he did not look upon the individual
and society as being in the political domain. Instead, he sought to reach out
to the individual-in-society as the basis social action; as he relied upon his
spoken words as a political actor of high moral integrity, they rippled across
the fabric of society, to provide the basis of social unity on a truly monumental
scale.
In the very nature of things, whether it was in South Africa in 1906, or
subcontinental India in 1930, mass action could only be concerted through
satyagrahi action and through the voluntary association of individuals, whose
hearts and minds had been touched and transformed, in great movements of
collective endeavour. Gandhi believed in action and asserted that an ounce of
action was better than a ton of barren ideas. Of course, by action he meant the
action of a Satyagrahi.
There are, of course, no blueprints which can provide an infallible design
for individual action or for organized protest by entire communities.
However, we have in Gandhian discourse the sensitivity to understand
the anguish of wronged individuals or communities; just as we also
have in Gandhian discourse the compassionate statecraft which through
moral mediation can help resolve some of the problems that affect the
contemporary world.
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How, then, can we sum up the thought and practice of Mahatma Gandhi, a
truly epochal figure, whose capacity for social intervention and moral praxis is
reflected as much in the diverse arenas where he acted in his lifetime, as it is
reflected in the relevance of his discourse to the resolution of a wide spectrum
of problems long after his martyrdom in 1948? That Gandhi was a remarkable
individual who developed, existentially rather than systematically, a moral
code and a novel calculus of social protest is readily conceded by those
engaged in reflection no less than those engaged in action in our times. Indeed,
the Mahatma has made a distinctive innovation of morally oriented political
action in the twentieth century.
No less momentous is the fact that four decades and more after his death, the
ideas which Mahatma Gandhi placed before India and the world are being
acknowledged as capable of finding solutions to some of the most pressing
issues faced by humankind, as we move towards a new era in which wealth
generation, political organization, social ordering and spiritual creativity
are undergoing a revolutionary transformation. Seen from that perspective,
Gandhi stands out as one of the towering figures of our country. Indeed, if
the stature of men and women is to be measured by the fact that their ideas
attain increasing validity and momentum as time passes farther and farther
beyond their own life, Gandhi stands in lonely eminence in the twentieth
century. Perhaps generations to come will turn to him increasingly as they
wrestle with the problems of existence in an era which holds out a potential
of unprecedented moral and material creativity through individual and
collective human endeavour.’
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Paths to Peace
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