This earth has witnessed many wars over centuries. There were many battles fought in the history since human existence on this earth, battles of various kinds for various reasons. There was a war for land, a fight for power, a battle for wealth, a scuffle for religion, a struggle for freedom. There were wars between nations, within a nation and among the nations. There were battles for freedom, for self governance. There were fights against corruption, against the slavery, against the cruel rules and rulers. History has witnessed every war and inscribed every event in it.
The methods and techniques used in a war varies depends upon many factors like the weapons available during that time, the people and their strengths and the leader’s. Some battles were fought face to face, army to army, there were guerrilla wars, marine warfare, air warfare, nuclear wars, bio warfare and the arms and ammunition they use in a war can ranges from rocks, sticks, knives, swords, archery, guns, machine guns, tanks, guided and unguided missiles to an advanced nuclear bombs and viruses. They use horses, elephants, chariots, vehicles, tankers, marines, aircrafts and all the possible things that they can use to fight a war depends upon the method and technique they use.
The weapons, methods and techniques used in any war could be as many as the wars fought the world witnessed till now….but all of those are….. more or less violent.
A war seeks blood, no war ever fought without shedding the blood, the blood of your own people and the blood of your enemy’s. One can win or lose a war, but many of them have to shed the blood….. some less and some more.
Humans, perhaps all living hood which lives on this earth, air and water…all fight…..fight for their needs, their existence. All use their power to fight. And in this fight.…more powerful wins and less powerful lose.
Perhaps, for the first time in the history of human kind, one man choose a weapon of PEACE to fight a war….. a war for independence and freedom. He walked the path of peace to fight a battle of independence. The freedom from the clutches of the greedy and powerful invaders, to save his country people from slavery, for the sovereignty, self respect and for the pride of his own people.
He believed in peace, humanity, sovereignty, self respect, freedom and non-violence. An ordinary gentle man fought a battle against the mighty fearsome opponent who was backed by a sophisticated army packed with advanced arms and ammunition. The weapon he chose to fight them is very simple….PEACE and NON VIOLENCE.
He was just not a believer, but a true practitioner of non-violence. He did not believed in shedding blood, but he believed in living peacefully, with self respect and dignity.
There were people who opposed him because his method to fight a war was unusual, impractical, never existed, requires loads of patience and an unlimited amount of time. All the reasons were very true and valid for the people who were opposing him. If you want to win a battle, you need a trained army, sophisticated weapons and a mercy less heart to kill the opponent. But he had none of them.
He went ahead with his simple, yet most difficult weapons of peace and non-violence and lead a nation from the front, he made the millions of people walk along with him, on the way of peace, a path of non violence. He choose a simple path, a path the world has never seen before. His self belief in PEACE and NON VIOLENCE inspired millions of people to walk along with him….against a fearsome force.
The enemy was powerful, mercy less, brutal, had advanced weapons and an humongous army. By then their forces were spread across the world, captured many nations under its clutches. But this lean, thin and just an ordinary looking man fought with the mighty powerful army with his weapons of peace and non violence.
He asked his people to do very simple things. When an enemy hits on your face, do not hit him back, but show him another cheek of yours, so that he can slap you again…….again and again……till his cruelty gets out of him, till he feels ashamed of his cruelty, till he realizes the value of love, till he understand the divinity in living peacefully and letting others live in peace.
And at the end…..HE WON…..HE CONQUERED.
He won a battle of Independence, a struggle for self respect and self governance and freed his nation from the clutches on invaders. His victory was not against an army or a country, but against the cruelty, greed and the violence.
And he became Mahatma….. The Mahatma Gandhi.
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Many people say that Gandhiji was not awarded a Nobel peace prize cause of more powerful British. They say the British rulers influenced the jury not to award him because it can work against them.
But I say….awarding the Mahatma Gandhi with any prize or award is insulting him. The Nobel prize is for normal people, for humans. But Mahatma Gandhi was not a human, he was a God, a God of PEACE, a God for PEACE . No award or prize can honour a God. The only way to honour him is….to follow in his footsteps.
In the history of human kind…perhaps Mahatma Gandhi is the only person who won a battle with the weapon of PEACE and NON-VIOLENCE. The one man who re-wrote the history.
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My Take 