Gandhi Jayanti: Stop the bloodshed!
"All activity for stopping war must prove fruitless so long as the causes of war are not understood and radically dealt with. Is not the prime cause of modern wars the inhuman race for exploitation of the so-called weaker races of the earth?"
By Raju Mansukhani in Ahmedabad
While the US, NATO and European nations prolong the Russia-Ukraine war, and the killings continue in Gaza and the West Bank, with thousands of deaths and destruction all over, a quiet visit to Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad is like stepping into an oasis of peace, love, compassion and kindness. It seems so far removed from our war-torn reality. Large posters, archival photographs, statues and sculptures from leading artistes take us into the world of Mahatma Gandhi and the Gandhian movement, with 2nd October marking the Gandhi Jayanti.
"It is... [a matter] of deep conviction [with me] that war is an unmixed evil. I would not yield to any one in my detestation of war. But conviction is one thing, correct practice is another. The very thing that one war resister may do in the interest of his mission may repel another war resister who may do the exact opposite and yet both may hold the same view about war. This contradiction arises because of the bewildering complexity of human nature. I can only, therefore, plead for mutual toleration even among professors of the same creed," wrote the Mahatma in Young India on 7 February, 1929.
Later, on 9 May he said, "All activity for stopping war must prove fruitless so long as the causes of war are not understood and radically dealt with. Is not the prime cause of modern wars the inhuman race for exploitation of the so-called weaker races of the earth?"
Photo-credit: Raju Mansukhani
Raju Mansukhani is a researcher-writer on history and heritage issues, attempting to bridge the past with the present.