PEACE AT ANY PRICE ... 1

PEACE AT ANY PRICE ... 1 An Indian Peace Movement must start where India's spiritual stalwarts -- real ones and not those close to the ruling political dispensation -- must be patronised by the Government of India to spread the word of the Sanatan Dharma throughout the world. The world 'is on the edge of a volcano, any moment to burst', to quote Swami Vivekananda, words which he had spoken towards the end of the 19th century regarding Europe, words which prophetically came true in the ensuing decades. We are facing a similar crisis today where nuclear holocaust looms large should war break out. Worse still, as Einstein had warned, humanity may see its end in an environmental catastrophe, an impending fate to which the world is not yet fully awake. Stephen Hawking, prior to his death, said that at the current rate of proliferation global population by the end of the 21st century will reach 11 billion to sustain which the world will heat up so much that life on earth will be extinct. The spectre of death, thus, looms large on every side and unless we act immediately, ironically, on a war footing, we will perish for sure. There is no point settling scores between nations when there will be no nation soon to settle score with. Humanity must no more be deemed as divided into nations and sects and races but must be viewed as an organic whole whose survival depends on not just the good of one limb of it but on the interconnected good of all its limbs. Cooperation must replace competition and peace must supplant strife. But all this as yet seems a tall order as nationalistic chauvinism assumes centre-stage and the human species as a whole is relegated to the backyard of socio-political discourse whose catastrophic impact will soon be felt. Written by Sugata Bose