‘Peace is a way of life’

A Staff Reporter DIMAPUR, JANUARY 30 Confronted with the disturbing information – one that, among other reasons, caused him to break down on stage – that a right-wing Hindutva group in Meerut had celebrated the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary today by paying homage to his assassin, the great-grandson of the Mahatma, Tushar Gandhi delivered a poignant message that humankind can no longer afford to wait for the “sacrifice” another life “to awaken our conscience.” Delivering the keynote address at the 2nd National Peace Convention, underway here at Dimapur, Gandhi said that humanity has always needed “some sacrifice” to come out of its “brutality” and have its collective conscience provoked. He cited the “sacrifices” of Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr and Mahatma Gandhi as cases in point. “Why does it have to be so? Why do we have to pay such a high price?” he shared, while offering that a way out of the “brutality” could be found “by paying a lesser price.” He presented two contrasting Gandhi analogies, one at the start and the other at the conclusion of his address, to underscore his message. The first was about his own father, whose desire to avenge his humiliation from racial discrimination in apartheid South Africa landed him at the doorsteps of the Mahatma to begin a process of “de-venoming the hatred.” He was asked to list every urges for violence under to separate columns in his notebook, one as active violence and the other as passive violence. Active violence covered physical aggression while passive covered the mental aspect of aggression. “The message is that we always think about violence as (physical) conflict. We never think of it as the hurtful thoughts or prejudices we carry every day,” he shared. This message found echo in his second analogy. He narrated of a young man who came to deliver a gift to the Mahatma, with a basketful of torn and worn-out footwear. The motive behind the gift, Tushar Gandhi said, was to humiliate the Mahatma – who sold the footwear for Rs 4 and deposited the money to the Harijan fund. Years later, when the pictures of the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers, Gandhi’s wife identified him as the young man who gifted the basketful of torn chappals. “This was a hatred that started with an insult and ended in murder.” As such, he said, the idea of peace as “mere conflict resolution” was very narrow and “a big barrier.” He underscored that peace has to become a way of life. “I have a big issue with the preaching of tolerance, to be tolerant. “Because beyond a certain level of irritation or acceptance, tolerance snaps. And we kill people because we cannot tolerate what they eat or we cannot tolerate that they are making noise. And we blame it on irritation,” he said. Gandhi also said that he was not annoyed at those right-wing activists who celebrated “the fact that this country’s hero Nathuram Godse eliminated” Mahatma Gandhi. “I am not concerned that they are eulogizing Nathuram Godse. But I am concerned that we can fall so low.” Chief guest of the occasion, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, C Apok Jamir felt that the event “could not be more welcoming” in the context of the state’s “growing complexities and historical background.” He further pointed out that any state would struggle to sustain peace in the absence of economic growth. More than 200 delegates from all over the country have converged here at Dimapur to participate at the 3-day event.