The Ideology of Peace pdf download

The ideology of peace

THE IDEOLOGY OF PEACE

Book Contents

• The Ideology of Peace
• Peace and Violence
• The Ways and Means of Peace
• Positive Status Quoism
• Going Against the Creation Plan
• A Manifesto of Peace
• Peace in Nature
• Peace in Different Religions
• Peace in Islam
• A Journey Towards Peace
• An International Peace Centre

Book’s foreword

Peace for me is not just an academic subject. It is the goal of my existence. I have dreamt of peace for as long as I can remember. I can truthfully say of myself that I am a born pacifist, and leading a peace-loving life has always been a source of great spiritual solace for me.

In short, the mission of my life may be called a peace mission.

By nature, I have always been a vegetarian. Killing and violence are simply abhorrent to my inborn nature.

I feel that such acts are perhaps incompatible with my genetic code. Perhaps I was born with such a nature as would make me feel highly sensitive on this matter, so that I might recognize its importance and play my part to the full in this peace mission.

I have been acknowledged throughout my life as a peaceful and non-violent person. Indeed, any incident of violence so greatly agitates me that the tears spring to my eyes, whether it takes place at home or abroad, and whether the victims are known or unknown to me.

There have been many such incidents in my life. I would like to recount one of them to illustrate my point.

once, in the days of my youth, my elder brother set off along with his friends to go hunting. He insisted that I should go along too, so I had no option but to join him.

we left in two cars, and after about two hours’ drive, we passed through the outskirts of the city and came to fields and orchards.

 Now my brother and his friends started hunting birds perched high up in the trees.

Then they handed a gun to me and asked me to fire at a bird (kahlak) sitting at the top of a tree.

I did as they asked, took the gun, placed it against my shoulder and aimed at the bird. But when the bird came exactly within range, I had such a feeling of unease that I could not bring myself to pull the trigger. I handed the gun back to my brother.

My heart was so heavy that I immediately took leave of my brothers and cousins, walked some distance on foot and then took a bus back home to Allahabad.

I am a pacifist, but my pacifism is not of a strategic nature. It is not a formula for justifying support in one case or opposition in another. My pacifism extends to all of humanity.

It has positive value in the full sense of the word. My pacifism is an absolute good, it has the status of a summum bonum for me. It is not simply a theory. It is a part of my f lesh and blood. It is the pain of my heart.

It is my life. It is the voice of my soul. I have watered the plant of peace with my tears. I have lived for the cause of peace for the whole of my life and I finally want to die for the cause of peace.

The public phase of my peace mission started on 28 February, 1955, when a public meeting was held in the historic city of Lucknow. I made a speech on that occasion, which began with these words: “we stand at the threshold of a new era.

 Future historians will call it the atomic age, but perhaps no historian will survive to tell the tale of the destruction of humanity.” This speech was published in 1955 in the form of a pamphlet titled: On the Threshold of a New Era.

After the Second world war, the succeeding half-century had cast a gloom upon it by the danger of atomic war.

 However, it is a matter of great satisfaction that we have now stepped into the twenty-first century with the hope that the danger of atomic war has almost been averted, and that a new age of peace has set in all over the world.

The present book is a gift to the new generation from a peace-loving person. It attempts to present a complete ideology of life based on peace, which can be summed up in these words: Peace is not an option: it is our destiny.

we shall either live with peace or destroy ourselves without it. In this world it is undeniable that the future is for peace alone. There is no future for war or violence. wahiduddin Khan