The Rediff Special /Tushar Gandhi

Why is the Nobel Peace Prize committee ignoring the Mahatma?

The Mahatma's great grandson presents a strong case for awarding Gandhi the Nobel peace prize.

I read in the newspapers recently that it was increasingly difficult for the Nobel Peace Prize committee in Oslo to find recipients for the coveted award. The selection is based on nominations from previous winners and the general public before February 28 every year.

In recent years politicians -- who first fought wars and then brought fragile and non lasting peace -- have been selected for the prize. But, sadly, the staunchest disciple of peace known to mankind during this century was destined not to be an awardee during his lifetime, and then not acknowledged one because he was not alive anymore!

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Mahatma (great soul) of India, was ignored for the Nobel prize. Was it simply an oversight or was there more to it?

The Mahatma showed humanity a non-violent way of life. He was the first leader in modern history who successfully wielded the weapon of passive resistance. Even if all his achievements were to be ignored, two of his actions were criteria enough to win him the peace prize twice over.

During his ambulance corps days in the Boer war in South Africa, the Mahatma and his band of volunteers (they were serving the British), helped evacuate hundreds of wounded. They carried the soldiers on stretchers, trudging over 40 kilometres to the first-aid posts and field hospital tents... right through battlefields amidst fierce fighting.

Again, during the Zulu rebellion, he and his band worked ceaselessly to evacuate and provide medical facilities to the wounded on both sides. When the British doctors refused to treat Zulu warriors, it was Gandhi and his followers who took to nursing the natives, feeding and even bathing them. And all this while he was leading a passive resistance movement against the very same Britishers.

The Red Cross was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for providing the same services, but Gandhi was ignored.

During the turbulent 1947 when there were widespread riots and unbelievable acts of savagery in the country, Gandhi went to Calcutta and eastern Bihar. Exposing himself to great danger, he pacified the rioting mobs. In doing so, he earned the wrath of misguided fanatics -- and ultimately paid for it with his life.

Lord Mountbatten, the last British viceroy in India who oversaw the transition of power, admitted the Mahatma was able to do in Punjab what his army could not -- stop the arson and massacres.

In recent times Amnesty international was awarded the Peace Prize for similar work in Northern Ireland, yet Gandhi was ignored.

These two episodes earned for him the title of Mahatma; but his achievements have gone unnoticed by the Nobel committee.

Nelson Mandela, a self-confessed Gandhian and a Nobel prize winner, during his initial years, led a violent struggle for the liberation of his people. Later, he came across Gandhian writings, and took up the ideals of non-violence. From then, he lead one of the most successful non-violent freedom struggles, one on the same scales as in India. He did one better when he successfully controlled the newly-liberated South Africans from exacting revenge on the whites for centuries of torture -- and avoided the splitting of the country.

Mandela is certainly a deserving Nobel winner; yet the person whose action and philosophy inspired and taught him the use of non violence and passive resistance has been ignored!

Yasser Arafat, a leader of freedom fighters who were often branded as terrorists, fought an extremely violent battle for the liberation of his motherland. His was one of the bloodiest battles for freedom -- yet it failed. It was only when he started using the weapon of passive resistance -- the Intifada -- that he could win international sympathy and Israel was forced to come to the negotiating table.

Today, as Israel traverses the road of peace, it is the former 'terrorist' and his people who are winning world sympathy and support.

Arafat too received the Nobel Peace Prize -- for winning a temporary and fragile peace in a potentially explosive situation. But the founder and creator of the weapon of civil disobedience and passive resistance -- the two components of Arafat's Intifada -- does not figure for the award

Mother Teresa, the apostle of peace and mother to millions of homeless and countless sick, a tireless worker for peace and brotherhood, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She works for the downtrodden, the destitutes, the dying and the orphaned, and is single-handedly responsible for setting up a worldwide network of the Missionaries of Charity. By awarding the Mother, the Nobel committee honoured itself.

Gandhi was a man who ceaselessly worked for the downtrodden -- first in South Africa and then in India. He nursed the victims of British genocide in South Africa, the Zulus, the English-wounded and the Boer casualties. He nursed plague victims in Africa and India. Gandhi, by supporting the harijans, the untouchables in the Indian caste system, braved ostracism from society. He treated leprosy patients with his own hands; he sheltered hundreds of refugees and destitutes in his ashram.

Gandhi, who achieved all this without the support and patronage of the Church or the Christian West, was ignored by the Nobel peace committee.

The Dalai Lama, the leader of the homeless Tibetans and a votary of non-violence and peace, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. For mainly continuing the battle for his displaced people against the Chinese Communist invaders of his mountain kingdom.However unsuccessful his efforts may yet have been, it is admirable the way he continues, propagating the idea of international brotherhood.

The Dalai Lama is a worthy recipient of the peace prize. One day he may lead his followers back to his mountain Shangrila on the wings of a non-violent freedom struggle.

But Gandhi, who led two non-violent struggles (the first for human rights and equality in racist South Africa and the other for freedom from the British) was never considered good enough for the Nobel prize.

I urge this committee of peace to correct the mistakes and set the record straight by awarding the last Nobel Peace Prize of the century to the Mahatma.

In the past, whenever it has been suggested the peace prize be awarded to Gandhi, the committee always maintained it cannot award it posthumously -- what would become of the prize money?

If that is the only objection, then I have a suggestion. It can appoint an international trust committee -- comprising eminent people, past awardees, heads of states, social workers -- to set up a corpus fund with the money. The income from this fund can be awarded to organisations working internationally for peace.

The medal and scroll of honour could be collected by the head of the Indian state and kept as a national treasure at the Gandhi Memorial.

I would urge people who agree with me to write to the Nobel Peace Prize committee in Oslo. Help in this gesture to create a better tomorrow for the orphans of violence, and honour the memory of the 20th century's greatest warrior for peace-- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

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