Thiruvananthapuram: At a time when the nation seems to be in ferment over war, a book titled ‘Give Non-violence a Chance’ has come out. After Uri, debates on the necessity of war are erupting everywhere. Gandhian N. Radhakrishnan, on whom the book has been written, told DC, “If non-violence is not relevant now, I don’t know when else.” The book is a collection of 18 articles on the Gandhian edited by Anoop Swarup and brought out by Konark Publishers. It covers fifty years of his campaigning for non-violence in India and abroad, including his efforts to make Gandhi relevant for the youth.
When asked about armed conflict between Pakistan and India, he said, “War hysteria has always been created by Pakistan, with India-baiting a strong factor there since independence. I’ve been to Pakistan and a considerable percentage of civil society there wants friendship with India, but the civil administration has been a puppet in the hands of the military. In contrast, India has always been a mature democracy, never a war-hungry nation.”
War was evil and should be averted, he said. “The way out is dialogue. I feel that people-to-people diplomacy against confrontation should begin in both countries cutting across national sentiments. Unfortunately, it has not happened yet,” he said. “Instead of blaming the government for war hysteria, we have to ask if we have shown caution after the Pathankot episode was repeated at Uri,” he said. He was asked about the Gandhian perspective of nationalism.
“Gandhi was denied the Nobel Prize on the grounds that he was a nationalist. Gandhi was a champion of nationalism, but his was not a narrow view of one nation born out of selfish consideration. He believed in Vasudaiva Kudumbakam, a vedic concept of one family, one humanity.” Gandhi too objected to cowsalughter, but he looked at it from an economic and social perspective, he said. The issue acquired its religious and political connotations recently, he said. “One should respect a person's right to eat anything, as much as the other should respect religious sentiments. What is required is restraint,” he said.
