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<\/p>\nGandhinagar, February 14, 2019: GNLU organized an interactive session on the\u00a0Philosophy and Practice of Non-Violence\u00a0by\u00a0Prof Binod Kumar, Professor at the\u00a0University of Dayton, Ohio, USA.<\/p>\n
Prof. Kumar narrated his journey from being a high school student in the remote village of Vaishali in Bihar to an engineering graduate from the Banaras Hindu University, and later a professor at the University of Dayton. His journey of research into non-violence education began during one of his visits to the city of Vaishali. Seeing the poor conditions persisting in the suburbs, his friend’s remark \u2018Vaishali being the birthplace of the principle of non-violence had become so violent\u2019, greatly invoked Prof. Binod\u2019s curiosity regarding the concept of non-violence. He then decided to take this up as a research question and approached the President of the University of Dayton, who readily supported him in the endeavour. He then successfully completed a study on Non-violence and its causes, having come to his own conclusions and thoughts regarding non-violence.<\/p>\n
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Non-violence, according to Prof. Binod, is a principle that had to be traced back to the\u00a0\u2018beginning of civilization\u2019. Addressing the various factors that contribute to the initiation, sustainability and growth of a civilization, he remarked that a there is a general impression that\u2018civilizations always begin with chaos and end with chaos\u2019, which according to him is wrong. In support of his argument, he pointed to the existence of various \u2018moral traditions\u2019 in India which as envisaged through the religions always embodied the principle of non-violence. When questioned on how some religious practices like animal sacrifice may seem inherently violent, Prof. Binod explained how the original principles of Hinduism, as seen in \u2018Yoga Sutras\u2019 were always inherently non- violent, and much like other religions, only later grew on to develop violent practices. Even then, according to him, the principle of non-violence was never thrown out of India\u2019s moral traditions, and in fact, became more prominent with the coming of \u2018Nastik\u2019 religions such as Buddhism and Jainism.<\/p>\n
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Discussing the \u2018Aryan invasion\u2019 which played a prominent role in the development of Eastern traditions, he explained the influence of the Sanskritic philosophies on the development of the non-violence philosophy, referring to texts such as the Mandokya Upanishad. The discussion then turned to non-violence as expressed in the philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi, who according to him was \u2018the most prominent figure in the discourse on non-violence\u2019. Gandhiji\u2019s philosophy, according to him, professed an active form of the generally passive principle of non-violence\u2019 which was based on \u2018soul force\u2019 and \u2018conscience\u2019. He characterized Mahatma Gandhi as an \u2018idealist\u2019. While his philosophies may not be followed as a blanket rule, he emphasized that non- violence must be followed in \u2018all circumstances, wherever possible\u2019. A member of the audience, at this point, also remarked on how Gandhiji himself understood the limitations of non-violence, and sometimes even \u2018supported mildly violent interventions\u2019.<\/p>\n
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Prof. Binod then addressed the problem of a \u2018cycle of violence\u2019. According to him,\u00a0\u2018violent actions result in an equally violent response,\u00a0much like Newton\u2019s third law, i.e. every action has an equivalent and opposite reaction”. He discussed how often it is a\u00a0\u2018flawed reaction to a relevant social action\u2019\u00a0that results in the cycle of violence. Citing examples such as the rise of slavery, which according to him\u00a0\u2018arose out of a social need, and ultimately resulted in the exploitation of millions in African countries\u2019, and the caste system, he connected the consequences of a flawed reaction, and emphasized on the\u00a0importance of a \u2018just reaction\u2019. He made it clear that it was up to the present generation to define what a just reaction must be in order to prevent further violence.<\/p>\n
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He concluded his lecture discussing how non-violence could have been practised at the international arena between states and remarked on how it was \u2018up to the future generation to find out non-violent ways to break the cycle of violence\u2019.”<\/p>\n
The session was organized by the GNLU Centre for Law and Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gandhinagar, February 14, 2019: GNLU organized an interactive session on the\u00a0Philosophy and Practice of Non-Violence\u00a0by\u00a0Prof Binod Kumar, Professor at the\u00a0University of Dayton, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8808,"featured_media":210271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conference_seminars_lectures","category-lawschoolnews"],"yoast_head":"\n