Ending Wars Peacefully

PRANAV KHULLAR





The preamble to the UN charter sums up our existential dilemma of today in an intensely evocative way , stating that “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defences of peace must be constructed.“In a land where history had sought to be sketched in an arc from Gautama to Gandhi, it is but appropriate to reflect on such defences and revive them in a time when war and terrorism have cast their shadow today . It is in the rock-edicts of Asoka that one finds the earliest instance of the transformation of a king who not only abjured war, but who went on to ban war in his kingdom as a measure of state policy . His inquiry into the psychological roots of war led him to believe that hatred for the other's beliefs is the primary cause of war but that hatred can never be appeased by hatred; it “can be appeased only by love, which is the eternal law.“ This inner understanding transformed Asoka into the great apostleking of peace and spiritual values, remembered not because he fought and won wars, but because he had the courage to perform the more difficult task of winning the hearts of people.
Urdu writer Krishan Chander narrates a story of two soldiers journeying back home after World War II. One soldier hopes that someday all soldiers will lay down their arms and refuse to fight, to which the other responds, in that case the enemy would win. The story captures our innermost insecurities and conditioning which would require an enemy even when none might exist.