Remembering our Champion of NON-VIOLENCE
DR JEANETTE PINTO
Martyrs’ Day in India is observed on January 30, the anniversary of the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1948. For a man who forged non-violence into a weapon of change, of revolution, of peace, he was merely a human being who lived by truth, love, peace and non-violence. The great religions were founded on the basis of these very values. Gandhi, fondly known as Bapu, and the Champion of non-violence said, “Non-violence succeeds only when we have a living faith in God… Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed – they were all warriors of peace in their own style. We have to enrich the heritage left by these world teachers.” (Harijan: Jan 28, 1939)
Non-violence! Does the common man really know the meaning of non-violence? Most people think that non-violence is a philosophy and one must have an activist approach to achieve political and social change. Mahatma Gandhi led a decades-long non-violent struggle against British rule in India, which eventually helped India win its independence in 1947. Martin Luther King adopted Gandhi’s non-violent methods in the struggle to win Civil rights for African-Americans. All this seems a long time ago. Is non-violence today merely a thing of the past?
Today, we live in a world with conflict: terrorism, war, torture, ethno-cultural rivalries, religious fanaticism and all kinds of violence. All this is anti-life, and gradually but surely leads to a Culture of Death. Some of the Government policies too are anti-life. Take for example, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act which is responsible for killing thousands of babies through aggression on the mother’s womb. Is this not violence? What about child abuse, human trafficking, sexual molestation and rape, rage killings, dowry deaths and violence against women? What are the goals achieved by all this violence? Nothing but the loss of dignity of the human being, as well as the loss of precious lives. It appears that we as a nation have lost the value for
human life.
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