When Dr. Radhakrishnan was trying to find his place in the academic field, the country was going through the upheavals of the Independence struggle. How could a proud son of India like Radhakrishnan remain untouched by the spirit of the native resurgence. May be, his research on Indian Philosophy was his way of contributing to India’s freedom struggle by arousing the native pride of its heritage. Dr. Radhakrishnan preached the eternal values of the ancient Indian philosophy of brotherhood, co-existence, love and compassion which made Indians look into their own cultural base instead of western societies and their values.
The Indian masses had rallied behind Gandhiji in their fight against the colonial rulers. At time the Congress party got debilitated by internal dissensions and strifes, Dr. Radhakrishnan lent his weight to restore the unity. Through his speeches and articles he aroused the feelings of self-respect, self-confidence and self pride.
Dr. Radhakrishnan through his philosophy, written works and thoughts nudged the Indian people towards the freedom struggle. He greatly respected Gandhiji and his inspiration attracted the philosopher professor towards the freedom politics for the larger welfare of the masses. Gandhiji’s simplicity and thoughts enveloped Radhakrishnan in an everlasting embrace. Throughout his life Dr. Radhakrishnan remained a Gandhi faithful.
On 4 October, 1955 speaking on the subject ‘Gandhi’s Teachings and United Nations Organisation’ Dr. Radhakrishnan said—
‘Gandhiji is basically religious person. He believes in unity of the mankind. All of us are children of one God irrespective of our colour, sex, religion or country of origin. Every religious person put his faith in the fact that he is related to rest of the mankind in blood. On the death bed, the famed philosopher Socrates had declared that he was no Athenese or Greek but a citizen of the world.
A truly religious person considers the entire world as his own family. Non-violence means giving up hostility. All the religions teach freedom from fear and non-violence (a state of peace). Buddha called it tolerance and compassion. Man must win anger with sobriety, evil with goodness, selfishness with charity and falsehood with truth.
Christ called it the truth and liberty. Truth helps us win liberty. Our behaviour will be civil when it is based on non-violence. The love wins and the hatred is destructive.
If we are all the children of one God then, the logical conclusion is that all the wards are our domestic quarrels or internal strifes borne of misunderstandings. And misunderstandings can only be removed with peaceful means, and not by violent wars. You have heard and have been told (By Christ) to love the neighbour and hate the animosity.
Gandhiji has asked us to distinguish the evil and fight against it. But he does not consider any one his enemy because all humans are brothers or sisters. Hence, he adopted peaceful means to settle disputes. He showed the power of non-violence and civility.’
Although we have long been trusting and using physical power yet gradually we are moving towards compromise in place of power and agreements in place of confrontations. On the matters of relations between father-son, teacher-pupil, protector-protected, employer-employee and master-servant we are reforming our attitudes and thinking. Instead of forcing conditions and demands we are adopting sympathetic agreements reached through mutual understandings and give-take compromises.
International disputes have traditionally been settled through violence (wars). The trust in military power has been the international policy of the powerful nations. The new weapons of war recently developed forces us to rethink on our traditional attitudes.
Today we stand on the edge which divides the past from the future. Our military options are closed. If we continue to force military solutions the end of the civilisation is not far off. Two opposing blocks are stock piling atomic and hydrogen bombs and military manpower at mad rate making threatening calls to each other. It is feared that in this context, the consequent war will benefit no nation, race, ideology or human ideal. If we use the old methods of settling scores we will be working out our own end.
It is obvious that the peace is not for the powerful but for the justice seeker. The right must win. There will be no peace until people do not learn to become justice seeking. The people won’t become justice seeking until they won’t give up believing in military power.
The UNO asks us to adopt peaceful methods to settle disputes through agreements, pacts and compromises. United Nations body and its important organisations are trying to remove the chances of war. When the science has made us capable of working for the benefit of the entire human civilisation then why are there the gross disparities between rich and poor, hunger and aplenty, powerful and defenceless and slavery and freedoms. We hope that fundamental changes will remove the disparities. The aim of the UNO is to eradicate poverty, hunger, remove misunderstandings and to liberate the human soul.
If UNO is unable to realise its goals it is only because the nations who have accepted the UN Charter are not willing to fulfil their obligations or they are not ready to or they just are incapable. Instead of making the UN an instrument to work for peace and co-operation they are using it to work up a cold war between the power blocks.
When there is aggression sometimes combined action is encouraged and other times it is opposed according to the interests of the powerful nations. Treaties are signed with some nations and the arms freely supplied to them as a right while other nations are denied the sale of weapons. No arms can be sold to such discriminated countries.
It is unfortunate that in the place of ideals the talk of war is given undue importance which gravely weakens the moral authority of the UN.
The importance of the UN gets diminished also by the fact that some nations who deserve to be its members by their own right are not allowed in. Tens of millions of humans are still in slavery and they have no representation in the so called comity of nations. This discrimination hurts the sovereignty of the UN. Several countries are pursuing the policies of racial discrimination and colonisation. It is brazenly against the human rights yet UN is powerless to force such countries to follow the rules of its Charter.
On the issue of Algeria, the debate is going on in UN for one example. It is so happening because the powerful western countries are pulling the strings of this puppet show. The biggest nation of the Asia (China) has no place in the world body, UN.
In the human history, often, after a great calamity and disappointment a renaissance takes place. Today our despondency has become so acute that it makes us take the view that we have pushed the world to the brink by narrow nationalisms and priding over our material gains. We are on a wrong path misled by blind overconfidence.
Today the world does not need political or military integration but a new education of universal nature. An individual should be taught to think in terms of the entire mankind instead of the interests of this block or that country. (The idea of human brotherhood should be the basic ideal).
The modern means of fast transport and communication have vastly expanded the space of international sympathy, inter-racial contact and cross-cultural interaction. The age has passed when different nations and races used to segregate themselves from the others with the help of various xenophobic laws and institutions we must assimilate ourselves into the new open world without destroying our regional identities.
Inspite of several handicaps UN is the best available means to work peace in the world. The two blocks the world divided into is bridged only by this organisation. It is the right stage to discus the issues that are dividing the peoples of the world. It is a centre to work for the increasing cooperation in the matters of agreement. The spread of compromises and cooperations is its aim.
We must put faith in social progress and the democracy and bring them nearer to this world organisation. The peace and democracy have an integral relationship. Gandhi proved himself to be the greatest servant of the mankind by propagating non-violence in the international relationships in the present day world scenario.
Dr. Radhakrishnan had firm faith in creed. He was the follower of the creed that stood for the world brotherhood, equality, cooperation, coexistence and the peace. He was truly religious, truly a believer and a true patriot.
Once, even the Russian supremo, Joseph Stalin said about him—‘Dr. Radhakrishnan is a great pundit. He is a great orator and an ideal writer and a thinker. But he is no politician. He is only a true patriot.’
Infact, he did not join politics because he was a crafty politician but for the fact that he was a true patriot and dearly wanted to chip in, in the cause of the country that happened to be struggling for independence from the colonial rule. And the politics was the only way to participate in it. He did his bit and the nation marked him for the posts he so richly deserved in independent India.
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