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Home , Gandhi Peace Prize

Speech by Mr. , MP, MEP, on receiving the Mahatma Prize, 1st February 2002

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: WO~~ cd w~0s:60 c00c l0 ·qa~ £S0lK l7 H l6 : "ON X~~ aN~I3~I ~0 ASS~HW3 Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, distinguished guests, in the footsteps of so In the zo•h century gave the world a Master fit to follow other saints. As well as many Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, S~ Jain, Christian, and ranking with Ashok and being a seeker after Troth, Gandhi-ji was a political leader Akbar. us by the decision of the My wife Pat and I are deeply aware of the honour done to other members of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the But today is not only a selection committee for the Peace Prize. to ask a question. Will highlight in our lives. For all of us, today is an opportunity of our world? Gandhi's political ideas contribute to the future structure

Let me begin with my own cobntry, Ireland. years ago to this day, In doing so, I feel history at my shoulder. One hundred in Calcutta. Gokhale.had Gandhi-ji was staying in the home of Gopal Gokhale he had arranged for a visited Ireland a few years previously. With his :fiiends of the Tenth Indian member of the Irish Party, Alfred Webb, to serve as President knowledge of Irish National Congress. It is recorded by Webb that Gokhale's Party itself So it is safe history was superior to that of many members of the Irish discussed the future to asswne that a centwy ago, as those two friends in Calcutta it, the name of Ireland. of India, the word .~waraj was mentioned, and with change was an untidy In our small island, as in this great sub-continent, political led to partition, and a business. In Ireland as in India, there were divisions that I grew up was a divided continuing legacy of pain. The Northern Ireland in which about the characteristics society. No one from my background could be in any doubt of the problem. The question was what to do about it. change in our From the late 1960s on, some of us resolved to seek a fundamental is the purpose ofthe circumstances through peaceful, political means. That was and that it was my privilege to political party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, in situations of conflict lead until a few months ago. In the SDLP we recognise that must help one another cast all of us carry a burden imposed on us by the past and accidental: none of us off that burden. Our differences of religion and politics are those who seem at first chose to be born. It is our goal to share the future with game. potential opponents. We reject the logic of the zero-sum

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£S0L69P 11 16 'ON X~~ QN~l3~I ~0 ASS~ffW3 : WO~~ and It follows therefore that the key to a successful society is to acknowledge As I have respect difference and to have institutions that enable us to work together. blood but said in more speeches than I can remember, let us not shed one another's within shed our sweat together. To arrive at stable and c

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part of the background to the Future historians will identify the European Union as rivalry fonned the Northern Ireland settlement -just as the Europe of geopolitical will see that the main background to some of our earlier tragedies. Future historians the Good Friday Agreement features ofthe European Union and the main features of a healing process. are parallel - respect for difference, common institutions, India so let me borrow from I am speaking in the presence of the Prime Minister of Friday Agreement have been him a phrase. Both the European Union and the Good conceived within the framework of humanity. But before that, there was Europe was an important influence on me and my party. eleven·plus examinations. Gandhi-ji. When Gandhi died, I had just completed my of my mental furniture, long I was old enough for India and Gandhi to form part Ireland, Britain, and North before I could imagine any other country beyond in Northern Ireland, I was America. As a young man in the civil rights movement was Gandhi-ji. a follower of Martin Luther . Behind King, there again the wmmds of two great For me and my colleagues, in the generation that bore As we defined our political European wars, it was easy to hear Gandhi's words. working together in the strategy of non-violence, respect for difference, and to something resembling common interest, we found ourselves giving expression the Gandhian conception of . society, were opposed utterly Above all my colleagues and I, working in a divided Difference is the essence of to the use of violence. People not territory have rights. have led to estrangement, humanity. No two peop]e are the same. Where differences deeper. Gandhi-ji taught me­ the use of violence estranges us fi.uther, digs the ditch life - that the doctrine of it has been etched in my mind at every turn of my political an eye for an eye leaves us all blind. for India in New York, In a famous speech in 1920 to the Friends of Freedom the world are with India." By Eamon De Valera stated, '~The great moral forces of and that independence for this De Valera meant that the day ofempire was passin~ of humanity. Another India, as for Ireland, should serve the wider purposes when she recalled here President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, had a similar instinct Conference Against Racism in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in November that the World his non-vioJent movement had been held in the very city in which Gandhi launched said, ''I feel that the against discrimination. '"In a very real sense," Mary Robinson community addressed for spirit ofMahatma Gandhi was with us, as the international racism and intolerance right the first time the impact of slavery and colonialism on

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WO~~ Sd W~1S:60 c00c 10 ·qa~ £S0L69P 11 16 'ON X~~ ON~l3~I ~0 ASS~BW3 : through into the 21st century.,, helped to shape our I have no doubt that at the level of world politics, Gandhi has the relationship goals. But even more fundamentally he has helped us to understand on the utilitarian between ends and means. Too often we are tempted to fall back this around. The principle that the end justifies the means. Mahatma Gandhi turned the means- including ideas ofahimsa and satyagraha suggest that it is the quality of on others - that our readiness to suffer for good ends but not to inflict suffering is natural in a world provide t11e justification ofthe ends. Gandhi's choice of means to the pmposes ofthe that is growing smaller. Gandhian methods are the counterpart rights, and the United Nations: peace and disannament, human development, human strengthening of international law. seen how acts of In Northern Ireland and other situations of conflict we have that can de­ violence within the confines of a community sow seeds of mistrust more sensitive to stabilise a society through time. That is to say, we have become connections between the consequences of actions - to the subtle and unpredictable of our scientific human lives. I am tempted to compare this insight to some in the young discoveries. In medicine, tbr example, we are learning that malnutrition the fonn of greater over a couple of generations can lead to genetic defects, in exposure in certain populations to the risk of disease. to the debate This more sophisticated understanding of causation is relevant policy. What do we underway both in the European Union and in India on security invest in the ability mean when we talk about security or strategy? How much do we dialogue? to project power and how much in education, development and copying a paradigm We all know that the Mahatma wanted India to avoid simply would have wanted on offer from the existing world powers. I believe that Gandhi of military us to measure with the greatest possible care the actual consequences as these are, but the action of any kind- not just the immediate deaths, unacceptable oflegal standards displacement of persons, the diversion of resources, the erosion the "dragon's and psychological inhibitions, the loss of political opportunities, apply in his own life teeth" ofhatred that may lead to future conflict. Gandhi did not would have been the calculus of ends versus means. But to those who do, his advice your ends -at least as I see it- ''Beware the short-term view, beware ofovervaluing and underestimating your costs." his statement that Gandhi was close to the poor. I recall his famous ''talisman'' and all to resist authority "real will come by the acquisition of the capacity by

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Gandhi-ji brings to our modem when it is abused". That is another contribution strategies must address the world of widening inequality. For him, our political as a by-product of, or sub-text plight of the less fortunate and the dispossessed not I am struck by a metaphor within, some overall fonnula for success but directly. Roy. Roy identifies our employed by a modern Gandhian writer, Anmdhati sufferings of some groups while tendency to give great weight to the concerns and An equation of this kind she we fail even to see or measure the sufferings of others. eloquently describes as a kind of moral algebra . words of Martin Luther .King: .In sum, I will answer my opening question in the is inescapable. He lived, was inevitable. Ifhwnanity is to progress, Gandhi '~Gandhi evolving toward a world of thought and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity peace and hannony. '' presence among us today of one As an Irishman in India, I must acknowledge the munber ofthe schools in Delhi group in particular, namely the teachers working at a of Irish origin. also in the past decade seen a In Ireland, beside our peace process, we have both sides of the border. One tremendous flourishing of the economy on India in the sphere ofiT. I am consequence of this is our growing interaction with our daughters is a lecturer to say that the Hume family is part of this. One of proud source of what we call this field and has worked in Bangalore. A very important in often religious sisters the "Celtic Tiger" has been the dedicated work of teachers, of Irish life has appeared in and brothers. in every corner of Ireland. This feature links between our island and India as well. One of the most moving of the many the oceans to India over two India has been the stream of teachers who have crossed that they would help to make a centuries, often leaving home forever, in the hope their institutions flourish. I am better world. Most of the Irish teachers are gone but of India as the practitioners convinced that Gandhi-ji would salute all the teachers of a particular from of satyagraha. colleagues in the peace process. I also want to recall here those who have been my is that in a peace process that One of the discoveries of my long political career and again. A Prime Minister in works, the number of heroes extends itself again leaders of political parties - we Dublin or London, a President in Washington, the who sticks his neck out and are the most visible actors. But think too of the militant his life in the course of duty, argues for an end to killing:> the policeman who risks of the calibre ofMo Mowlam, a the journalist who struggles to be fair, a Minister

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£S0L69v ll 16 'ON X~~ GN~I3~I ~0 ASS~8W3 : WO~~ list ofthose who have played their spouse like my Pat and all the other spouses .. the So many have paid a price. part is almost endless. So many have kept faith. am not the best person to answer: What I leave to last is the question that I, perhaps, what does Gandhi mean for India today? India I am struck by the robustness Let me offer two thoughts. First, as a visitor to quality of the writing, the coalition of democracy, the freedom of the press and the the Constitution, the rootedness of of cultures, the social programme represented by of so many men and women on so many different traditions of faith, the activism Mahatma seems to play its part. behalf of good causes. In all of this the legacy of the him today, would see a mnnber of Second, I believe that Gandhi, looking rOWld depth in the peoples of this region areas in which he would want to see the spiritual in the troubled relationship with harnessed as a transfonning energy .. and not least Pakistan. in relationships within our two have seen in this generation a transformation We have replaced alienation. If islands ofIreland and Britain. Dialogue and partnership more than ready to do so. What I am there is anything we can share ofvalue, we are on the words of my friend the poet certain of is that change is possible. I will end Seamus Heaney:

''History says, don't hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme".

swaraj: self-rule satyagraha: action to affirm truth : non-violence

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