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Man is the most selfish and cruel animal and, paradoxically, this
selfishness and cruelty is on the rise with modernisation and technological advance. Intellectual progress and increasing population levels have not contributed to the cause of peace as much as they have to disunion
and violence. Nevertheless, let us not lose heart. Man is a social animal too. So we must plan at both ends of the spectrum. In fact, legal systems which aim at maintaining peace and eliminating violence deal only
with non-respect of social norms and public opinion. But the law does not do anything to strengthen the self-restraint of those who do respect public opinion. We must concentrate on this section of society more than
the other. We must keep in mind that conflicts of interest of various human beings would nevertheless continue to exist and yet we will have to train minds not to allow this temptation of personal motives to
overcome the characteristic restraint.
Peace is not a negative or a residual concept like darkness. So absence of violence cannot be seen as peace. Likewise silence is not peace. Before we
proceed to see what peace is, let us consider a few illustrations that would give the right perspective in understanding the word ‘peace’. First, if in a factory when it is time to work there is absolute silence and
neither the machines nor the employees make any noise, is there peace? Yet there can be perfect peace amidst the great noise made by the machines and the workers. Second, presume there is a ship wreck on the high
seas and some how you survive. When you are thrown in the waters study your mental behaviour, are you at peace? When you were afraid that within a short time your energy would be exhausted and you would not be in a
position to swim or float. Then after sometime you find a small plank of wood, you get hold of it and it supports you. Yet you are lonely and exposed to the dangers of the sea which you now realise. Are you at
peace? What is your state of mind? After some more time you notice another survivor at some distance and you feel an association. You decide to approach the other man. When you go nearer and exchange pleasantries
you find him to be a nice guy. So you are floating together. After a while you notice that the plank of wood that is supporting you is cracking at places and you fear that if it totally cracks you will drown. You
also notice that the log possessed by the other person is larger and more sound than yours and you decide to snatch it in case your plank cracks and gives way. Study your mind behaviour at each of the stages and so
many facts related to the meaning of the peace would become apparent. Third, suppose there is a curfew clamped in a city and all the people are in their houses. There is no one on the roads, everywhere there is
silence and human activity is at a standstill. Is there peace? Or isn’t there the maximum absence of peace?
Peace is a positive concept. Peace is an attitude of mind. It is an approach of human being to ones own life. One must be at peace with oneself first.
It is the co-relationship of a human being within and without, i.e. with oneself and with others. It is an attitude of adjustment, of decency, of gentleness, of mutual respect, of understanding the scheme of the
universe, of equality,, of brotherhood, of aversion to unjust enrichment, of aversion to violence and selfishness, of exercising one’s own rights and protecting one’s own interest without violating the rights of
others and causing them losses. It is acknowledging the individual’s gratitude to society for having offered for the potentially rich life that one can pursue today. It is the presence of a sense of guilt in causing
any wrong to another human or animate being or to the environment. It is understanding the whole scheme of the universe and the individual’s role therein. It is realisation of the importance of presence of other
animate beings and non-animate things around. It is courage to face the reality. It is freedom from fear, lust and weakness of mind. To be at peace is to be consciously at harmony with the universe.
Though we are living in the era of rapid dissemination of information and we are more knowledgeable today than our forefathers, contemporary society is
more disunited, insecure and prone to violence, suffering from terrorism, extremism, environmental pollution. that poses threat to the flora and fauna, and abusing the use of depleting natural resources.
Peace can be better understood in juxtaposition to violence. Elimination of violence is the object. But the we must properly understand what peace is
and what violence is?
There are various facets, to the concept of peace. It can be individual peace, in which case it is the relation between individual and his own self, or
between the individual and society or the individual and the environment. While there can be social peace, in which case it will be the peace between one group or section of society with other groups or sections of
society, there can also be peace at the international level where it is peace between various states.
To properly understand the anatomy of violence which requires us to analyse its various components. Say:
A. The mental turbulence involved in it, its causes, its personal, social and political effects.
B. Violent thinking, its causes and its effects.C. Group violence, its social, economic, political, religious, ethnic and other causes, and effects
thereof.
D. The justification of violence by society, of the social attitude and decisions to change society.E. Want of motivation and courage to repress and
oppose violence.F. Meek submission by ordinarily decent people to the violence of vagrants.
G. Social and political respect for wrongdoers, criminals and mischief mongers.H. Social approach to crime and punishment.I. The subtle causes leading
to violence like political, social or economic exploitation of the people by some stronger and better organised sections.
J. Passions - individual and collective - that lead to disturbance of the peace and violence.
K. Conflicts between ideologies, ideals, religions, history and views of differences in moral and ethical backgrounds.
L. Certainty of social and legal protection to those who fight violence or absence of such certainty.
M. The social, political, religious or economic gains for which violence is resorted to or perpetrated by some sections of society.N. Kinds and types
of violence.
O. The components of each type of violence.
P. The strength and weakness of each type of violence.
Q. The international and the ethnic causes of violence.
R. The tacit forms of approval of violence by non-violent groups.S. The eventual and consequential violence which may be triggered by unjust
violence.T. Peace and crimes, including suicides.
U. Solitary confinements and punishments.
V. The international disturbances, just and unjust wars.
Resorting to violence to prevent violence.
Unifying Social Forces and Peace
It must be noted that there are certain elements besides legal systems that act as a cement on society. Say, religions.
Religions to a great extent in the past, and to some extent today, play and important role in the maintenance of peace but also in causing violence. It
is time that religion brings together and keeps united different persons who share a common faith. But at the same time the person, though religious-minded, who had been so compassionate and tolerant to his
co-religionists would immediately be hostile to the persons belonging to other religions. Let us not forget that human history reveals that more blood had been shed in the name of religion than for any other reason.
Therefore, in the changing scenario and with an object to build a holistic society, we must concentrate on only the secular principles of various religions.
Political States are another instrument developed by human societies to bring unity to a people. It helps them to live together in security, to work
for common advantages, comforts and riches. However, at the same time conflicts of interest between the citizens of one state and the citizens of another lead to violence at an international level.
Existence of a just system of government is a pre-condition for the maintenance of peace in a politically organised society. The system must take care
of corrective as well as distributive justice. The State must ensure liberty and opportunity to each and every citizen.
The Role of Science and Technology
Mere advancement of knowledge may not promote peace. Science and research activities and new technologies produce their own fallout with social
effects. It is not for the scientists to judge the fallout and the social effects. A scientist may claim that he works in the abstract and may not care for the consequences of his research or his inventions.
However, society must be vigilant as to the applications. We have experienced the modern use of scientific advances for helping warfare as much as for promoting peace and social development. Most scientific have
caused more harm to the environment than to its protection, and more harm to human life than its enrichment. All these advances in science can be classified as ‘violence of science’. In fact, the activity denoted by
the word ‘science’ itself has cultural and social implications.
Every science is a systematised body of knowledge. Knowledge is not mere information. It is something that cultivates the mind. The very object of any
science and justification of its existence is the social need it undertakes to supply. Hence we cannot leave it to scientists alone to decide the nature and consequences of their activity. Scientific inventions may
themselves be absolute ideas and abstract in nature, but when they are allowed to enter society the pre-condition for such entry ought to be that they do not interfere with smooth social life, social ideals and even
political emotions. What laws govern an individual’s actions in a society must necessarily govern the scientists and their inventions. There can be two types of scientific activity:
1. When the scientist knows before hand as to what he wants or expects to find
2. Where he does not fairly know what he would find or accidentally finds something that was never expected.
In the first case, the very undertaking of the activity would be socio-scientific, while in the second case after realising the possible results it
could become a socio-scientific activity. In all such activity the set of ethics which keeps society together has to be borne in mind. In other words we must develop an ethics of science and must scrupulously follow
those ethics in order to keep science as an instrument of peace. In this respect we may consider science in relation to some other factors. Let us say:
- Science and peace
- Science and violence
- Science and economics, Inventions and their applications
- Science and technology
- Science and mind-building, Pure sciences and normative sciences
- Science of literature and the literature of science
- Science and methodology
- Science and individual and social economy
- Science and the exploitation of natural resources and the environment
- Science and injustice
- Science and war
- Science and politics, etc.
The Role of Education
The above leads us to the conclusion that a change is required in the upbringing of the young and training of the elders.
Nowadays families play a much lesser role in the character- building of a child than they used to in the past and what they may reasonably be expected
to do. Nowadays shaping a child is mostly left to formal education. It has become perhaps the sole responsibility of formal education to make a responsible citizen out of a child. We are facing world-wide unrest and
violence and this would now require us to make responsible citizens not of a state but of the world itself. There must be citizens with understanding, citizens with vision and the educational system must form such
citizens. The educational system must be capable of imparting values and building character. It must aim at inculcating social and individual values in addition to meeting the more found needs of education. We must
also aim at educating the teachers who educate students in their turn.
In educational institutions, mere imparting of knowledge cannot be considered of sole importance. We must aim at character-building also. We must see
that the sense of co-operation and harmony is also promoted and that children understand the importance of living without causing harm to society and the environment. We must take into account the differences
between Eastern and Western cultures. Today’s scientific advancements is of such speed, that knowledge can no longer be knowledge belonging to a place, or to a society, of to a state; it is global knowledge and,
therefore, we must have in our educational system the safety valves capable of making adjustments between different cultures and ideologies. Education must aim at promoting constructive behaviour, guided by
compassion, kindness and reasonableness and aiming at universal understanding and self-integration. Citizens must collectively realise that the "overdraft" from the future is a sort of violence against
future generations and they must be trained to use knowledge with wisdom. This would require us to ensure the following:
- Peace between citizens, and within the family
- Peace between different individuals
- Spiritual values of a universal nature
- Moral, socio-religious, secular and theological values
- To know or to ascertain or locate causes of conflict. To analyse the anatomy of conflicts and to take measures to prevent them.
- To know and define the remedies. These would be reformative, preventive as well as curative.
- To manage and to operate at different levels and on different human beings.
So we must have a scheme to classify the subjects on the basis of all these factors.
Human beings are unequal and yet we have to encourage equality amongst the unequal and minimum disparity between the various classes of the society.
Discrimination of all kinds tends directly to threaten peace, whether it be political, economic, religious, social, racial or gender-related. So we must consider the relationship of an individual with himself, an
individual with other individuals, and individual with society, a group of persons with other group of persons, and individual or group and the state, an individual and the international community, an individual and
other animate beings, an individual and nature, an individual and the environment, etc. It is a co-relation between individual, society, groups, organisations, family, sects, other animals, flora and fauna, natural
resources, environment and nature. Each of these with all others of these must be guided by considerations or preservations of all and injury to none. The Atharva Veda aptly puts it thus: "One who wants to use
violence against others ultimately uses it against oneself, and violence does not succeed".
Though our target groups will basically be students and youngsters yet we will have to keep in mind the elders too. When considering the cases of
students and youngsters we must know what classes they come from. It is a world-wide finding that students coming from the middle classes or from poor families are more painstaking, career-minded and sensitive to
values than those coming from affluent families. Hence, courses at graduate, post-graduate and diploma levels as well as short term courses must have a very intensive screening system, while no such screening may be
necessary for entry to primary school, However, this will have its own effect on the finances of the institutions; heavy fees confine higher education to the rich while the poor are automatically excluded. This
eventually leads to class conflicts. We must also aim at training and building the minds of parents, teachers, social workers, government and public bodies (including the NOG’s operating in social life, and those
whose duty is to maintain peace, politicians, government officers, the police, judiciary, etc.)
Ultimately, we must aim at promoting a holistic society. Let different individuals not live as intersecting circles, let them live in international
society as concentric circles. A holistic educational system is the crying need of the times. We must aim at peace and know fully well that any injustice to anybody would always threaten peace. Therefore, the
strength to eradicate injustice, and the will and intention to promote justice alone can support peace. Even using force for maintaining peace cannot be termed as violence, whether it is part and parcel of law and
order or as a war of defence.
The expanding population of Planet Earth, which has become unmanageable, and the scarcity of resources, have led to great conflicts of interest. There
are large areas where even adequate drinking water or food are not available, while there are other areas where the level of affluence is reaching vulgar proportions. This does not help the cause of peace. The
equitable distribution of wealth, the equitable distribution of resources, the reasonable exploitation of resources and the non-exploitation of human beings or societies, are essential pre-conditions for the
creation of peace in human societies. If these are to be realised, a new social order will have to be evolved, a new code of international ethics will have to be developed and societies will have to aim not at a new
social order within the confines of existing political borders, but extending to the international arena. This may sound like wishful thinking. Nevertheless, there is no alternative, if we wish to live a safe,
secure and enriching life in peace.
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