According to a September 15 report by Shruti Dhapola on www.firstpost.com, Narendra Modi, one of India’s prime ministerial candidates for the forthcoming general elections, said at a public gathering that we must dream of exporting our own weapons. That is a very disturbing thought. Weapons are perhaps the last of all things that India should be offering  the world. We have much else to offer.

The thought sounds completely absurd to me, especially when I am doing a course in Peace and Conflict Studies, and learning that peace movements and nonviolent resistance all over the world have sought
much inspiration from the philosophy and practice of ahimsa (the root meaning of which is ‘do not injure’; source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa) in India. Shouldn’t we build on this legacy and give it new meaning in the contemporary world instead of destroying it?

We already have too many weapons in the world, and the suffering they have caused and are causing in families, communities and countries is intense and unbearable. Why would we want to aggravate that suffering? I am clueless as to why someone who aspires to be entrusted with the responsibility of envisioning the well-being of a nation would want us to export weapons instead of investing in peace education programmes, creating safer neighbourhoods for women, and guaranteeing livelihood opportunities for the poor, hungry and unemployed. I am sure these initiatives would make citizens feel more secure and looked after.

Last week, J. Peter Burgess (pictured below), our visiting lecturer from the Peace Research Institute Oslo, initiated some thought-provoking group discussions about the situation in Syria, the plight of civilians suffering from chemical weapons, the proposals for humanitarian action and the politics driving them. Most groups in our class were in favour of the international community taking constructive steps to affirm their
solidarity with the people of Syria; however, they wanted non-military options to be explored, given the lessons learnt from US intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Weapons, regardless of whether they are used by dictators or first-world countries, are designed for damage and destruction. What good can come of them? Human beings claim to be the most superior and intelligent of all species but continue to prove their stupidity by refusing to learn from the horrors of history. Haven’t we already seen enough suffering yet?

As these thoughts circulate in my mind, I feel the need to fill myself with hope and prayer. I am reminded of my time in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, in June 2013, where I discovered Raji Ramanan’s English translation of eighth century Buddhist teacher Shantideva’s text ‘Bodhicaryavatara’ (‘The Way of the Bodhisattva’). These are four of my favourite lines from there:

“Thus by the virtue collected
Through all that I have done,
May the pain of every living creature
Be completely cleared away.”

Those are such noble thoughts, and worth cultivating in ourselves, whether we identify our life’s work as peace building, or something else. Let this be India’s offering to the world.

Chintan

Thanks to Eowyn Evvastri Ruud-Olsen for photos