No act of violence can be celebrated or validated: Gandhians

Several Gandhian thinkers on Saturday said no act of killing can be celebrated or validated and all issues should be resolved non-violently.

The occasion was the launch of a book Give Nonkilling a Chance: Are Nonkilling Societies Possible at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti here.

Former president Pranab Mukherjee was to be the chief guest at the event, but, organisers said, he could not make it due to some contingency.

"Human beings by nature are non-killers but certain societal aberrations make them violent. And, therefore, for a peaceful, harmonious world, we need to teach students and other people and nurture in them a spirit of non-killing," said N Radhakrishnan, chairman, Gandhi Peace Mission.

The event was held in the main hall of the Gandhi memorial in Birla House, where he was assassinated on January 30, 1948.

"This very hall, we are meeting today, is where Gandhi ji used to meet various thinkers and leaders to chart out a larger plan for the betterment of humanity. He spent his last 144 days in this House, before being killed. The place itself had so many lessons to offer," he said.

Y P Anand, former director of National Gandhi Museum here, emphasised that violence, against anyone, can never be "celebrated or validated" even if it's against an enemy.

"Gandhiji always used to say that it is the wrong deed that we must try to address and root out, not the doer. Soldiers get killed in a war, on both sides, how can anyone celebrate the killing of people on the other side. It is after all an act of killing even if it is on the battlefield," he said.

The Mahatma, in his autobiography, has indicated that "there is no absolute truth but just relative truth", the octogenarian said.

"So any conflict arising from any issue should be dealt with in a non-violent way, with sobriety and not frenzy," Anand said.

A K Merchant, National Trustee, Lotus Temple and Baha'i community of India, alluded to acts of violence being perpetrated in various parts of the world, and said only a non-violent society can create a mirror paradise on earth.

Anoop Swarup, another Gandhian and Vice Chancellor of Jagran Lakecity University, who edited the book, said violence today could be of any nature.

Even the great fire raging in forest of Amazon in Brazil, if allowed to go on, tantamount to "violence against nature".

The event comes a month ahead of Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.