Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Call to create a violence-free world

MADURAI: In what was his 129th lecture in a series, which began five years ago as part of the centenary celebrations of Salt Satyagraha, N. Radhakrishnan, Chair, Indian Council of Gandhian Studies, New Delhi, focused on the need to create a violence free and non-killing world.

The lecture, delivered at the Valliammal Institution, here on Tuesday, had its significance in the form of honouring Glenn D. Paige on his 80th birthday. Dr. Paige is an American political scientist. Paige is known for developing the concept of nonkilling. His studies on political leadership were instrumental in institutionalising political leadership as a discipline in social sciences. A Korean War veteran, he served in the US Army from 1948 to 52. His conceptualisation of ‘nonkilling’ refers to the absence of killing, threats to kill and conditions conducive to killing in human society.

Dr. Paige, through his work, had been leading from the front to create a violence-free world, termed as the Ashoka of the United States; Paige refuted the idea that violence is a common and natural phenomenon and the myth that non-violence is a difficult proposition. Dr. Paige’s major work, ‘Nonkilling Global Political Science’ published 10 years ago, has been translated into 29 languages and the first translation in India was done in Tamil by S. Jeyapragasam, DR. Radhakrishnan said. Now the translation process was on for as many as 40 languages. Violence is not natural, it is just a fallacy and it is the social and political structures that have made this illusionary feeling that violence could be termed natural. India has a long tradition of practicing non-violence. However discrimination takes place in various forms and it becomes a starting point for violence.

A paradigm shift in people’s attitude was the need of the hour and an enlightened citizenry essential for changing the social order and move towards a nonkilling world. However, the change had to start from every individual who should think beyond his own skin and lead a life useful for others, he said.

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