23 September 2023 03:06 am Views - 688
One of Sri Lanka’s most important needs today is the emergence of a statesman of the calibre of Mahatma Gandhi to give our country leadership or guidance, which our leaders will follow.
Mahatma Gandhi played a similar role in India. He peacefully and gradually played the key role in toppling one of the biggest and most powerful empires in the world, the British Empire.
British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill degraded Mahatma Gandhi by referring to him as “A half-naked fakir” which means a Hindu ascetic who lives on alms. Among political leaders, Winston Churchill is widely admired for this wartime leadership but he was defeated in the general election that followed the war.
Mahatma Gandhi’s memory lives on because this statesman worked for the next generation and not for the next election.
On October 2, the United Nations marks the International Day of Non-Violence to mark the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. The theme this year is Say no to violence.
In a statement, the world body says Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence.
According to a General Assembly resolution of June 15, 2007, which established the commemoration, the International Day is an occasion to disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness.
The resolution reaffirms the universal relevance of the “Principle of non-violence” and the desire “to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence.”
Introducing the resolution in the General Assembly on behalf of 140 co-sponsors, India’s External Affairs State Minister Anand Sharma said that the wide and diverse sponsorship of the resolution was a reflection of the universal respect for Mahatma Gandhi and of the enduring relevance of his philosophy.
Quoting the late leader’s own words, he said: “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of people. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of human beings”.
Referring to Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle for non-violence, the UN says the name of Mahatma Gandhi transcends the bounds of race, religion and nation-states, and has emerged as the prophetic voice of the twenty-first century. The world remembers Mahatma Gandhi not just for his passionate adherence to the practice of non-violence and supreme humanism, but as the benchmark against which we test men and women in public life, political ideas and government policies, and the hopes and wishes of our shared planet.
According to the UN assessment of the life and leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, he helped lead India to independence and has been the inspiration for non-violent movements for civil rights and social change across the world.
Throughout his life, Mahatma Gandhi remained committed to his belief in non-violence even under oppressive conditions and in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.
The theory behind his actions, which included encouraging massive civil disobedience to British law as with the historic Salt March of 1930, was that “Just means lead to just ends”; that is, it is irrational to try to use violence to achieve a peaceful society.
He believed that Indians must not use violence or hatred in their fight for freedom from colonialism.
Defining non-violence, the UN says “The principle of non-violence — also known as non-violent resistance — rejects the use of physical violence to achieve social or political change. Often described as “the politics of ordinary people”, this form of social struggle has been adopted by mass populations all over the world in campaigns for social justice.
While non-violence is frequently used as a synonym for pacifism, since the mid-twentieth century the term non-violence has been adopted by many movements for social change which do not focus on opposition to war.
One key tenet of the theory of non-violence is that the power of rulers depends on the consent of the population, and non-violence therefore seeks to undermine such power through the withdrawal of the consent and cooperation of the people.