Dr. Radhakrishnan firmly believed in the brotherhood of the mankind, the value Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ preached by Hindu philosophy. It could have been idea motto of UNO. Ancient wisdom held that the world was a big family and all the human beings were its members.
According to his thought Hindu philosophy and the eternal truth contained therein required to be understood. The dark colours of war looming on the world could only be driven away by its wisdom only. It is the religion of consciousness. It sees the common soul factor binding all humans in oneness. The consciousness is public. Hence it is a world religion, the religion of mankind that preaches world citizenship to all without any colour or racial discrimination.
The religion of conscientiousness is a truth that exists in every body, mind, individual, society, nation or international existence without which nothing is possible. Conscientiousness sees everyone in equanimity. All are conscious. Every life is valuable, it has meaning and objective. It is life philosophy and not an idle musing. It reveals what is life and how it should be lived.
A universal rule will lead to world understanding and world society. Before the world society becomes a reality the existing moral, social and political circumstances and position will require to be changed. We must work earnestly towards it because the alternative to world society would be world-wide tyranny.
Today when the peace is becoming more and more uncertain in the world the powers have special duties. They must deal with problems peacefully, carefully and with a great patience and find solutions. We must not think that the human nature is immutable, and since there have always been wars so, the wars would continue to break out.
In the shrinking world, world peace is no pipe dream. It is an imperative and the only way to save the mankind. It can not be achieved through threats and use of force but with peaceful means.
A famed writer had suggested an organisation of nations instead of one world state and one government for peace. The nations were to undertake to exercise civil conduct and minimum authority.
Dr. Radhakrishnan was a fierce supporter of democratic environment at every level from small bodies like a family to political set-up of a large country. His democracy was not nominal but based on transparency, cooperation and co-existence. He advocated brotherhood of all the people of all nations in the manner of the members of a family.
On 13 June, 1956 he said in a convocation address upon the subject of world brotherhood—If there is a factor that separates our age from the past it is the increasing unity of the mankind. Whatever happens in one corner of the world it effects the rest of the world. The time has ended when a country could go on independently without the interference of the other countries.
From the early ages, messiahs have been dreaming of the unity of the mankind of the world. Hindu’s believe that all the three worlds are their own. Buddha talked of establishing one religious state all over the world. Confucius said, ‘Be one family under the sky.’ The Christianity wants peace and the goodwill on the earth. Saint Paul said that we were members of one another. All the religions declare that in God’s view all humans are equal. They consider human individuality sacred. Every human has his own special capability and glory. We believe that all the relationships between guru and disciple, parent and offspring, master and servant etc. must be based on love. Man is not born for hatred and destruction but love and life.
The dreams can not be realised until there are physical means to give them a concrete shape. Today science and industry are providing those means.
Smaller the world becomes the heart of the man should become larger or there will be strifes. We can’t take wars as the consequences of circumstances or God’s wish. Today we face challenge and if we are to further human civilisation we must meet in adequate measure. We must shift the fulcrum of our thought and life.
In the past we had depended on military means. The idea had been to raise larger force than the enemy and hope to maintain peace believing in the enemy’s wisdom that it would prefer desperation over valour. But if the enemy turned out to be fool hardy he would pay the price, of course. That is how we behave. Marx says that power is a nurse, the old order is pregnant in whose womb develops the foetus of the new social order. Some leftists think the power is no nurse. Infact the history of the new society is the history of the class struggle. On the other hand Churchill says that the story of the human race is war. Today war systems have so much changed that it is difficult to predict the outcome in advance. A nuclear war means the enemy’s end and our own end. It will be mutually assured destruction. The fall out of a nuclear war will engulf the neutral countries also. The warring groups and onlookers all will be finished. The other creatures of the earth will also fall victim to man’s stupidity.
Some people imagine that if the nuclear weapons are banned we will get away with fighting small wars like the earlier ones. But such ban would be ineffective because there is no reliable method to stop the clandestine making of nuclear weapons. Then even those countries who don’t possess any nuclear weapon can embark on quick production of atom bombs in case of war. We can easily guess that in any future war both the warring sides will make still more powerful nuclear weapons than they possess today.
There will be no end to this horror war.
There is no guarantee that the war will not break out. It is childish to think that nuclear war’s dangers will put wisdom into the people. They are sensible and opt for higher ideals having learnt lessons from the past mistakes. If head is hot and blood pressure rising then one won’t use rationale. If fear of holocaust stops us from waging wars then we must look at other options than trying to bring opposing forces to conference table. The peace efforts and military build up can not go on side by side. It would be like playing a grand farce that would make no one smile. A new foreign policy requires to be framed which should not be based on threats of war or war.
The existence of limitless self-destructive power compels us to become humane and accept the safety of spiritualism. The man has self-preservation instinct. This instinct forced us to found ‘League of Nations’ after the World War I and ‘United Nations’ after World War II. The various agencies of the world body have several commendable achievements to their credit. But towards solving the fundamental political disputes satisfactory little progress is being made. What are the reasons of the failure of UNO?
1. It does not represent all nations.
2. It is fragmented in groups. The decisions taken are not based on justice but under the influence of group pressures.
3. It is not bringing about the changes in a peaceful manner due to handicaps. The main issues of Asia and Africa are the same—poverty, hunger and unemployment.
All nations must be represented in UN. All those nations where there are powerful and recognised governments, they must be allowed to join the world body provided they accept the provisions of UN Charter. It is one matter of satisfaction that last year 16 new nations were admitted into it. But a large country like China is still outside UN. We have to sign several treaties with that country being our next door neighbour. Until China does not become a member of UN we shall be forced to carry on talks in an outside arrangement which does not give us full confidence and the process erodes the importance of the world body. It is a must that UN becomes truly representative of the entire mankind.
The well established countries like China, Japan and others must find their due places in it.
The clash of East and West is having a negative impact on the working of the UN. Military pacts and power groupings have always been dangerous. Now nuclear weapon systems have been developed to such extent that human race faces total annihilation. We are stockpiling weapons and indulging in sabre rattling and putting ourselves in mortal danger. Rich and democratic countries are adopting the anti-UN charter policies.
After World War I we declared the right of adult franchise. The UN charter grants all nations irrespective of size right to liberty. But the leaders who have influence in the world body are not in a position to have sympathy with the Afro-Asian nations who are demanding their just rights. They are more interested in intensifying the cold war in place of giving a thought to the just demands of the victim nations. All kinds of gimmicks are being used in cold war to run down the opponent.
Inspite of their beliefs the democratic nations are opposing the demands of freedom to colonised countries of Africa and Asia and those of Latin America who ask for economic independence. There is no doubt that USA who itself won freedom from colonial rule sympathises with the aspirations of freedom of the enslaved countries but it is unable to come out in support of the nationalists of Asia and Africa as it does not want to embarrass its allies. The policy of this double standard has lost USA several friends of the East.
In the beginning UN was set-up with the noble intention of solving the international problems through peaceful means and it was supposed that the world body would have its own military force capable of implementing its decisions. As cold war grew fiercer a kind of a common force did materialise that could deal with the aggressor countries. Thus, instead of using peaceful means to settle disputes it opted for collective defence. It too was done at the request of a powerful block. It was done in Korea but not done in Guatemala in similar situations. Both the countries had suffered aggression.
If India and several other countries do not want to join any power group it does not mean they lack intellect or will power to decide what is wrong and what is right. We support democracy, peace and the Charter of U.N. If we think that the war means total destruction then common sense requires that we must double our efforts to solve international problems through peaceful means.
A third neutral force is a necessity of the hour. If there is no such force then we must create one with as many countries more joining it as possible. The third force non-aligned group can create pressures to keep power blocks from coming to blows. We shall appeal to all those countries who have nuclear weapons to get rid of them and stop further development of nuclear bombs. The disputes between power blocks can only be solved through peaceful means only. The military option now can only dissolve the world. We believe that two different political systems can exist side by side in the spirit of co-existence. We hope that peaceful co-existence will teach the importance of human dignity and individual freedom to dictatorial forces.
We have adopted democratic system of governance which is a proof enough that we are not aloof from peace or war. It pains us to see that some big countries are not implementing the ideals of democracy and they are fixated on some old notions based on prejudices. On the contrary they are supporting status-quo of the prevailing situation in which tens of millions of people are living in stone-age conditions suffering hunger and diseases. They don’t enjoy the facilities made possible by the modern science.
Unfortunately we are not ready to reduce arms production to stop the big financial drain and spare the youth for useful and productive work instead of employing them for mass destruction.
The recent developments in Russia prove that its ideology too is flexible yet and it is not yet rigidified. Some changes are being made and experiments are promised. The Soviets appear to be softening up their attitude towards other political systems and ideologies. They are understanding that socialist goals can be achieved through non-communist processes also. The peaceful co-existence would encourage those forces that are revealing their liberal thoughts. If we work for a new social order, a cooperative world society then capitalism and communism can be there as other options. It might lead to their action and interaction resulting in the elimination of the minus points of those systems.
Today we need an open mind and humility. We must give up the pig headed attitude that we are right and those who don’t agree with us are all wrong and represent evil forces. Some admit that nothing is perfect but they don’t forget to add that nevertheless they are better than opponents. We must give up the stance of moral superiority.
The co-operation of all is only possible if UN adopts policies based on equality and mutual benefit. No nation must torment other nation. Those who believe in democracy claim that they don’t believe in racialism, economic exploitation or political
subjugation. But they hesitate to support the resolutions put forward in UN suggesting freedom for colonies and removal of apartheid.
If they really believe in the UN Charter they must openly condemn colonisation and racial abuse.
No nation in today’s world can survive on its own independently. The nations depend on each other which requires peaceful co-existence. It is possible to create a new social order by honestly implementing the UN Charter. The fighting of the medieval duels is today out of fashion. Similarly the wars can become out of fashion exercises if we use uniform conscientiousness and the wisdom of equanimity to usher in the rule of peace and prosperity in this world.
