Monthly Archives: September 2019

Everyone knows the central ontological question: “Why there is being, being rather than nothing? But there is another central philosophical question which the human race has been unable to answer: “Why is there violence, violence rather than non-violence?"When once asked if non-violent resistance was a form of “direct action", Gandhi replied: “...It is the only form." He said it was the “greatest force...more positive than electricity, and more powerful than even ether." Gandhi believed non-violence could be put into practice at every level of human experience. Nonviolence for him was not just a political tactic but spirituality and a way of [...]

If the goal of education is freedom from ignorance, freedom from dependence and freedom from prejudice, then it is time to ask ourselves whether our education has enabled us to acquire the necessary competence to understand the world in which we live, to develop the skills to live independently and also to live collectively. Harmonious coexistence of multiple identities is the core of human civilization. Sharing is the basis for civilised collective living in a civil society.Since the war begins in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defence of peace must be constructed. ~ The [...]

A public philosophy of non-violence, a culture of peace – that’s the diplomacy the world needs todayFull text of former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao’s speech at the Gandhi Memorial Center’s ‘Fellowship of Peace Award’ ceremony.For almost all of my adult life, I have practised a profession that is diplomacy – that concerns the paths of peace rather than war. But diplomacy has also come to acquire other meanings – it covers strategy, geopolitics, competition and rivalry, maintenance of status quo, providing a velvet glove to narrow nationalism, and bypassing the common ground of mutual accommodation and mutual benefit. Perhaps the time [...]