Rev.Dn. Alexander and “Holy Brahmawar”

Rev.Dn. Alexander and “Holy Brahmawar”
Ref:- Article published on 13th Dec. 2009 in ICON as post No. 2438
I am happy to read the posting on “Holy Brahmawar” by Mr. George Alexander, Chief
coordinator, D P R of OBL Forum in ICON on 13th Dec. 2009. It gives more information
on Portuguese Padruvado community church and the Propaganda Church of Rome and
how Mar Alvares Julius started the new Brahmawar Orthodox church for the oppressed
old Christian community who wanted freedom from Rome.
The article traces the persons who built up the Orthodox community in Brahmawar. H G
Mar Alvares became in 1889 a consecrated Metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox
Church. He constructed this new church in Brahmawar. He got an ardent supporter in Fr
Nuronah, 39 years, who was then already a Catholic priest. They were the pioneers of this
community. Mar Alvares pleaded to his superiors in Malankara to send missionaries to
inculcate the Orthodox liturgy and rituals to his 5000 odd families who were his
followers in the new church. H G Pulikottil Mar Joseph IInd sent Rev. Dn. K J Alexander
who was a reputed orator and convention speaker. He went in 1905 to Brahmawar to join
Fr. Nuronah in building up the Orthodox community. Dn. Alexander thus became the
first Kerala Missionary in Brahmawar.
Fr. Nuronah and Dn. Alexander then requested for woman volunteers from Kerala to
work among women in Brahamawar. They got Ms. Annamma Vettiyil, Vakathanam and
others. As she later got married in her advanced years to my relative, I had an opportunity
to personally hear from her, about her stay in Brahmawar. Dn Alexander was sent by Fr.
Nuronah to nearby localities in Karnataka, and Telugu and Marathi speaking
population for the mission work. Rev. Dn K J Alexander was later ordained by H G Mar
Alvares in 1911 and returned to Kerala to become vicar of his mother parish St. John’s
church, Mepral. It was Dn. K J Alexander and Fr. Nuronah together who built the
COSMOPOLITAN SCHOOL the first educational institution for this community. In1936
Fr. K J Alexander went from Mepral to the death bed of Fr. Nuronah in Brahma war
These facts are not seen in the said article. Fr. P G .Koshy came in after Rev.Dn.
Alexander, who went for higher studies to Serampore College, Kalkota around 1909-‘10
Ref:
1 Light of Life- Feature –H.G. Alvares Mar Julius [1889-1923]
By Prof. Joseph K. Alexander-2005 July Vol. IV- issue 10
2. Kanianthra family History. Feature-Rev Fr K J Alexander Corepiscopa:
Joseph Alexander and Achamma Ammini Joseph –2000- Sankar Printers.
Bangalore .PP 136-141
3. Kanaianthra Kudumbam(Malayalam) Feature- K J Alexander Corepiscopa
1882-1955:– Dr.J Alexander, K. J Ninan and Prof. Joseph Alexander -1991. – M
M Press. Trivandrum. PP 261-271
4. Church Weekly 1956. April 8: Feature- Parethanaya Kanianthra Achen- P P
Varkey
5. “XRAY”- a vituperative book attacking Malankara Orthodox Church- p. 32
says that Mar Alvares ordained Kanianthra Fr K J Alexander, Kannamcote Fr.
Lukose and Kunnamkulam Dn. David.
6. Alvares Mar Julios” Malayalam D Mathews-Feature- “Kanianthra
Alexander Kathanar PP 106-107
7 Ordination Document. Copy - published in “News And Views” of MGOCSM
– Vol I Bk 7 Oct-Dec.2004

GLOBALISATION LEADS TO RECESSION

Globalization Leads to Recession.
Prof. Joseph K Alexander
Oct 2009

Globalization is inter-connectivity, inter-dependence of peoples and economies. 1/3 to 1/5th of the World production is daily traded in the world markets. Trillions of World currencies are exchanged every hour between countries. Majority of products and services traded are intermediates for further processing. Internet connectivity enables producers and traders to suit instantaneously their production and transaction plans to changing national / international situations. Factors of production of land, labour, capital and organization move to global markets to get the highest reward (subject to barriers imposed by Nation States). There is more income, more demand, market expansion and keen competition. This is the theory of .Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization. L P G is apparently beneficial to the World. But intense global competition leads to recession and depression. Why?

Resources are uneven.
The basic issue we have to realize is that opportunities and resources in the World are uneven. Some Countries, Nations, Sub-national groups, Localities, Firms and Individuals have more endowments: some natural, some acquired. A few are born with more wealth and better entrepreneurship. Some live in societies having more health, literacy, longevity and facilities to acquire them. These all have a head start over others in the competitive race in the production and exchange markets.

The keen global competition is with the most efficient economic units. Even an iota less of any of core competency requirements / efficiency, will lead to rejection and marginalization of the less endowed economic units. Kerala, despite very good ambience for quick economic growth in the form of near-centum literacy, wide spread health facilities and higher longevity; self-impose marginalization and tardy economic growth for ideological fundamentalism. Gujarat, to cite an example, on the other hand utilizes every opportunity for competitive one-upmanship.

Income and wealth accumulate into the few efficient and successful units. This skewing up of wealth will be so massive to create a very wide gulf between the rich and the poor. Richest 20 % of the population own nearly 90 % of the World GDP while the poorest 20 % own only 1 % or less of it. Globalization leads to widening inequality. This leads to recession. How?

Demands & Investments of rich & poor are differ.
The demands of the over-rich and the very poor are totally different. The phenomenal income of the rich is used for durable and luxurious conspicuous consumption. Their rising prices and profits attract most of the new investment funds. The capital investment in such production is large, roundabout, and with longer gestation periods. These are expectational investments aspiring for high returns in the future. They crowd out and decrease investments in other spheres. They are sure to move in due course into overinvestment and glut in the supply of their finished products. Then their prices and profit margins fall. The retailers and whole sale stockists urgently and drastically curtail their demands for stocks. The sudden decrease in demand and disinvestment create large scale retrenchment and unemployment. The investors fail to repay their bank loans. Closure of banks and the wide spread panic leads to pronounced recession in the economy.

Marginalization decreases the income and consumption of the poor. Even their basic demands for food, shelter and clothing languish for want of purchasing power. Thus prices and profits in these primary production areas also tend to decline. Investments in these industries decrease. This augments the recession trends in the economy. Thus intense competition of globalization can widen the rich-poor gulf and economies may move to depression.

Remedies are effective.
Unlike in the 19th and 20th centuries, modern governments adopted contra-cyclical Monetary and Fiscal policies. Interest rate cutting, boosting exports and imports, manipulation of the foreign trade and foreign exchange policies are all brought in to prop up the economic decline. Thus recession is reined. Despite all these measures to mitigate the evils, countries suffer the recession in varying degrees subject to the efficacy of their contra-cyclical props.

END

Kerala and BPL

Kerala and BPL.

Recently I read an article about poverty in Kerala. It argues that it is a major concern and warrant social and economic changes to eliminate it. Eliminating poverty is a mirage. It exist even in the richest society. It is a relative concept. Moreover there is another view about poverty in Kerala. A couple of decades ago I was introduced to Air vice Marshall K. A. Joseph in his coupe in the train journey from Ernakulam to Trivandrum. A forty-one day old strike in Aluva FACT was on. In our discussions the Marshall said, “Such a long strike will not happen in any other part of India. Kerala is God’s own country. Every inch of it is fertile and produce edible fruits, roots, leaves and meat. If none of these exist in your homestead, they are in the neighbor’s plot. Except destitute, none experience real hunger in Kerala. Staying power enables the Kerala strikers to continue endlessly”. Despite this view, poverty exists. Amelioration is imperative. Calculation of BPL (“below poverty line”) is necessary. But more than economic change, a change of the mind is the need. World can provide the needs of man, but not his greed.

Abject and Relative poverty
Poverty is a state of the mind. It is an experience of not having; not getting what you want. Basic needs of life like food, shelter and clothing are examples. Those who do not get income to purchase even these needs suffer abject poverty. They are few. All others, except abstinents, encounter relative poverty.

Physical needs are easily satisfied. The rest are psychological needs. Full satisfaction is impossible. Relative poverty applies to these demands. Consumption depends on the income (percentile income) of the individual vis-à-vis of his social group. A person with higher income than of others in a group can maintain a higher level of consumption and feel rich. If he moves his residence to a still higher income group locality, his consumption basket is relatively less than that of others. He feels poorer. He suffers relative poverty. Such poverty exist at all times and in all societies and countries; rich / poor. It is a mental attitude. To quote the Bible: “poor will always be there”.

Amelioration of conventional poverty.
Poverty is caused by low or no income. It is classified into Destitute, Conjectural and Mass poverty. Abject poverty of the destitute is more due to lack of love, care and no income. Their rehabilitation is effective in the hands of the NGOs than the State bureaucrats. Conjectural poverty arises due to inadvertent maladies like earth quakes, flood, war destruction etc. In this case massive transfer of resources from those who have to the victims can be arranged by the State through tax and non-tax sources. Here again servicing the aid will be better done and without corruption by philanthropic NGOs. Mass poverty is often due low economic development of the country / society. In this case, heavy investment by the Government on infrastructure, agriculture, industrial production and rural and urban employment schemes are warranted.

BPL
Those who suffer abject poverty in God’s own country (Kerala) are small in number. But Politicians want as many relative poverty sufferers as possible in the BPL category to pressurize administration for subsidized food distribution.

BPL and APL (“above poverty line”) are conceptual attempts to measure the number of poor who require anti-poverty help. Traditional calculation is by the minimum income to consume 2500 calorie of food per day. Those who have that income are APL and others, BPL. When India became independent more than 50 % of the population was in the BPL group. The Planning Commission of India claims that economic planning & growth reduced it to 28 % or around. But many argue that BPL calculation criteria must change to include good food, decent shelter, clothing, health care, education facilities, freedom of expression etc. If this is adopted, most of the population will come under the BPL category.
Conclusion
Central Government is only for Targeted Public Distribution of food to the BPL families, to reduce the cost of food subsidies. But Kerala insist on Universal Public Distribution: of subsidized food to all in the State. Kerala had this system for decades. .The State argues; if universal rationing is not possible, at least make the BPL criteria broader to include more families in.

Because of awareness of our fundamental right to employment, income and consumption, we all claim to have the right to get food and all needs at the lowest / subsidized prices. Though the State is deteriorating in agricultural & industrial productivity and production, we maintain very high consumption pattern including costly and sophisticated durable consumption items. Kerala is “the” market for even posh costly motor cars. Around Rs. 2000 crores / PM are brought in by our NRIs. It runs down and percolates to increase the income and consumption of all in the State. All of us, excepting the destitute, are APL. Claiming to be BPL is a political gimmick. If it is relative poverty, we are all in the BPL category. Eliminating this poverty is impossible.

END

Reforms in Governance

Reforms in Governance

Prof. Joseph K Alexander
Chairman’s remarks at the Regional Conference of IIPA
Kerala Regional Branch on 20th Oct. 2009

Governance pertains to policies and actions of State, market and civil society. The goal of reform of Governance is to raise the abilities of individual units in them. It aims at the increase of efficiency of economic and market systems, public institutions and democratization of the society through efficient LSG and NGOs. There is no stable pattern for these changes. Reforms warranted in Governance change with the fast changing situations. In India the reform agenda is basically to adopt what has been suggested by the various committees of the two ARC (Administrative Reforms Commission) reports. The theme paper of the 53rd Members Annual Conference prepared by Ms. Sujatha Singh points out that implementation of these recommendations were slow and by steps. Hence the reform “has failed to capture the Indian situation”. But I may be permitted to point out that the adoption of the reforms were ineffective because the implementing agencies are highly corrupt kleptomaniacs. They do not want any change in their fishing grounds and nets.

Context of Reforms
In India Governance situations changed with every change in politics, markets and the society. We had one type of Governance in the pre-independent period, another in the post- IInd War period, still another during the Indian Independence, and so on during Nehruvian economic planning, during Ms. Indira Gandhi’s Control-license Raj, during liberalization and privatization era beginning in 1991, millennium regime of 2000, and the new inclusive growth agenda of 2008 onwards. Each change demanded new reforms in Governance. Indian Governance all through had been contextual and dynamic. This contextual nature is true of all nations and all times.

Kerala Context
In Kerala this context has three elements.
1. Every five year general election alternatively empowers the UDF / LDF coalitions to change the reforms each previous Government envisaged / started to implement.

2. The LDF has a long range goal of ushering in a Marxian Socialist society. So their short term goal is strengthening the party by getting entrenched in public institutions, market structures and all social infrastructures. UDF is more interested in the present administration, economic and social goals. Because of conflictive politics of these two coalitions every five years, the new Government in power suppresses the reforms of the previous rule to introduce new reforms. Thus neither the former nor the latter reforms have time to take root. Chaos prevails...

3. The third element is the widespread corruption. The politician-mafia- bureaucrat-sun-rise finance and banking firms-goonda nexus make not only governance, but even life difficult.



Indian context and reforms
Indian reforms in Governance are based on the Two ARC Reports 1966-’70 and of 2005. In post independent period, reforms in Governance was recommended by Goplaswamy Iyengar (1949), AD Gorwala Committee (1951) and two Paul H Appleby reports in 1953 and 1956. IIPA and Administrative Reforms Commission were created in 1957 and 1964 respectively. The ARC created 20 study teams, 14 working groups and one task Force. They made 20 reports and 581 recommendations. The second ARC report (2005) was mainly for refurnishing the Personal Administration

Stability of tenure of civil service, right to information to foster transparency and to counter corruption, involvement of NGOs in Government programs, limiting the size of bureaucracy, decentralization of planning through the Panchayat Raj system, promoting use of IT, effective implementation of development programmes, single window clearance of investment proposals, HRD etc; have all been recommended

The theme paper
The theme paper points out that the recommendations regarding lateral entry into civil service at the middle and higher levels, introducing specialization and specialized experts into civil service, compressing the selection process of civil servants, downsizing their number, administrative accountability etc have not been implemented in toto . Most of them were initiated, but could not be implemented effectively. The”incremental approach” implying a step by step process of implementation of the reforms “fails to capture the Indian situation”

Conclusion
Reform in the State, market or civil society structures is not possible in a “kleptocracy” that exploits national wealth for its own benefits: short –run or long-run. The politicians and parties require funds and are “hand in gloves” with the mafia –goonda gangs. They oppose all transparency and accountability in the public actions and policies. They profess incessantly about impending reforms on all the platforms to hoodwink their ranks The Global Transparency International‘s barometer shows that political parties, legislators, police, judiciary, tax revenue departments are all corrupt. India is in the last ten groups of the most corrupt countries of the World. Reforms are impossible in such a corrupted chaotic political, social and economic arena. No reform in any of the structures is possible in “kleptocracy” that exploits national wealth for own benefits.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Indian Orthodox Church and Mission

Malankara Orthodox Church and Mission
Prof. Joseph K.Alexander
Director of Collegiate Edn, Kerala. (Retd)



When three or more Orthodox Christians of Kerala sit together, it is fashionable to decry their Church leadership for all failures. They are all well-meaning and their anxiety is that the Church does not live up to their aspirations and ideals.Hence their crtitical remarks. One such most innocuous complaint is about the failure of evangelism.

While Europe, which received Christianity only by 1500 AD, was able to evangelize the whole of Africa, Asia and America and create more X’ians in the colonies than their number in Europe in just 500 years; we who have been Christians ever since St.Thomas preached to us in 52 AD, have failed to carry the Good News and proselyte the rest of Indians; not even the rest of the Keralites. This is their lament.

Only when we critically understand the historicity and the contexity of Malankara X’ians we will be able to pardon ourselves for this lacuna.
In fact X’ian evangelicalism and observance of the verse in St. Mathew 28:19 can be done in at least 4 or 5 different ways.
1. By preaching the good news of “Imminent Heaven at hand” and healing the sick and the needy and even proselyte the willing hearers, as was done by St. Paul and other Apostles.
2. Mirroring Christ by one’s own life like the Judaic Christian sanyasis. They did so because Jews were the chosen priestly class of God. So by tradition they cannot mingle with others. They were thus silently christianizing the society without insisting on nominal conversions to X’ian names and rituals,
3. Proselyte by persuasion. This can be by offering rewards like free food and other amenities of life, employment or other forms of economic, social or even political dispensations.
4. Militant Proselytism as Europeans, particularly the Portuguese, did during the colonial period 1500 to 1950. Bishop Tutu of Africa complained:” They gave us the Bible and took away our land “.
5. The latest in the Western evangelicalism is the mass evangelism of great preachers likes Billy Graham, Thanku brother in Kottayam, and the creation of Electronic Church through television by Oral Roberts in 1954, by Pat Robertson founding the Christian Broadcasting network in 1960. and Paul Dinakaran in 1970s.

A basic difference between Western and Eastern Christianity is that while the West believe in Proselytism and increasing the number of Christians and expanding the Church by hook or crook (example: Francis Xavier in the 1560s and Bishop Menses in Udayamperor Synod), the original Eastern Christianity do not practice this method. They believe in the 2nd method of Christianizing the World by their life and preaching.

Eastern Orthodox Sages were following the Semitic and thus Judaic practice of exclusivism. They were against spreading their religion and laws to non-Hebrew heathens. They reclused into West Asian desert caves. They were praying for their Church and humanity.They were spiritual dynamos disseminating spirituality and love for their brethren. They were not advertisers of Christ. Fr. Bijesh Philip, Professor of Nagpur Orthodox Seminary writes in "Theosis and Mission" a recently published book, "Mission is not a Christian commercial. It is a witnes and an act of love. It implies love for those whom it is directed, and love means self-giving, not simply giving something." This proves that the Eastern Orthodox Churches (including we) were poor evangelists in the modern or western sense.This is one reason why the Easterners have not been able to spread out like colonialist Christians. At the same time we cannot forget the 6th and 7th century missionary work of the Nestorian Nisibis School teachers and missionaries of Persia journeying to reach out to China, Indo China, Philippines and other farthest points of the Far East to spread their version of Christianity.

The historical and social background of Kerala St. Thomas Christians is in this context very relevant.
1. There is truth in the tradition that some of the St. Thomas’s converts of 52 AD were Brahmins. To deny this for want of documentary evidence is naivety. Sometimes tradition is truer than (concocted) documents and many a time we rely on traditions for lack of documentary evidence. St. Thomas tradition is such an undisputable truth. One who questions it at this length of time has ulterior motives.
2. These convert Christians (Jews and Keralites) and their associates had contact with the West Asia / Persian merchants and their language and perhaps even were involved in facilitation of foreign trade with them. So it was easy for them to imbibe the Judaic customs including their exclusivism and the teachings of St. Thomas the Apostle.
3. The more enterprising of them even entered into foreign trade in the early centuries with West Asia and later with the Far East and Ceylon and still later with the Portuguese and the English and made them rich. Some became quite rich even to finance the Rajas and Chieftains of the post-10th century Kerala. In general they were trade associates and financially sound.
4. When there was persecution of Christians in Persia the Christian emigrants who came to Kerala in 345 AD and in the 7th and 8th centuries were received warmly by Kerala Rajas and chieftains, who had an eye for the income from spices trade with the west. They offered them special privileges like the” 72 pathavikal “. These emigrants brought their exclusivism to further strengthen this Judaic trait of the Christians. Kerala.Knanaya Christians is a typical example
5. The exclusiveness of the Savarna-Avarna divisions of the caste system pervaded the Kerala society from the 7th centuryAD. This helped the Kerala Christians to perserve this exclusivism.
6. The Christian catechism and preachings made most of them honest, upright, dependable and trust worthy
7. Kerala Christians used to get military training in the “Kalaries” from the early age of eight onwards and hence were dependable warriors. Due to their dependability and Kalari training the army chieftains of many of the petty kingdoms in the post 10th Century melee of Kerala, were Christians
8. These factors and specially the 72 “pathavikal” made Kerala Christians to be on a par with the Savarna Brahmins.They were a separate social, economical and politically respectable group outside the four Varnas.
It was these historical and contextual factors that made Kerala Christians an exclusive upper class that could not mix with the gentiles and evangelise Christ to the lower castes in Kerala and make them their own brethren. .

The St. Thomas Syrian Christians and emigrants from Persia constituted the main stream Christians till the coming of the Portuguese. They were called Nazarenes L.K.Ananthakrishna Iyer in his famous book “Anthropology of the Syrian Christians” explains in detail about their indigenous aristocratic customs and manners. They refused to mingle with the lower castes or have intermarriages with others. I am not citing this as a virtue but as a historical fact.

Dr.C.Issac in his article “The spread of Christianity and Islam in Keralam” published in Itihas Darpan, New Delhi, Vol VIII, No.1, Nov. 2001, pp 41-48, argue that they intermarried and imbibed Hindu customs. This is not correct in the case of the excluvist Nazarenes. This is true only about the converts of St. Francis Xavier and the Portuguese.So Dr. Isaac’s statement, after quoting G.T.Mckenzie “Christianity in Travancore”, that they were Sudra Jathis like Nairs, Elavas doing “uliam” work, applies only to the new converts by the Portuguese.

The stranglehold of the Caste system has eased in this century. Moreover large amount of westernism have been imported during the last four centuries into the Malankara Christians. Roman Catholic Church, Protestant Churches of various hues have all emerged. All of them believe in evangelism and proselytism. Even the Kerala Orthodox Christians have been persuaded to ease their stand on the caste consciousness. We also started evangelism. The first proclaimed Indian Saint St. Parumala Mar Gregorios converted a few dalits to our Church. H.G. Pathros Mar Ostathios continued that work in a bigger manner in the 1940s and later actively followed by H.G Geevarghese Mar Osthathios.

The point made by Denny Jacob in ICON on 19 Jul, 2008 that the Brahmawar Mission of Bishop Julius Alvaris in S. Karnataka converted a number of poor dalit farmers is true. But that was a post- Portuguese practice and was not in Kerala.

But let it be remembered that even now we do not believe in or practice militant evangelism or proselytism. But Kerala Orthodox Christian expatriates in USA, Gulf, Europe, Malayasia, Australia and other parts of the World have globalised our church with parishes in different parts of the world. Kerala Christians have thus evolved a new type of evangelism that can be termed as “Global Evangelism”.

END

Why all the Sufferings

Why all the sufferings


It was on 29th December 1987. Immediately after the Malankara Syrian Christian Association Meeting to elect Bishop designates and the Priest trustee of our church, the MGOCSM Annual Conference was held on the same venue in the Mar Elia Cathedral Compound. I was very tired of my work as Chief Election officer of the meeting. After the counting of the votes and causing the election results to be announced by H.H.The Catholicose, I came late to the meeting and sat among the students.

Then H.G.Paulose Mar Gregorios after his speech was prompting the student audience to ask questions. I also prodded the one sitting on my side. He stood up and the poser was “ Why should God who is goodness and love, allow all distress, sufferings, hunger, famine, nakedness, wickedness and peril in this world “.

H.G.Paulos Mar Gregorios replied. (I am not quoting him. But this is what I understood from his explanation)
“I cannot give a definite and satisfying answer. But I surmise as follows”.

God created the Universe and everything including man. It is moving towards Heaven, its final Goal of perfection and of being with God.

It is like a massive Symphony Orchestra. The 6000 million players and what is there in the Universe as animate and inanimate things with their different instruments (features or personalities or character) are playing on the stage to the tunes and signs of the creator-conductor.

The sounds produced from the bowed, wood, wind, brass, and percussion instruments of all kinds are there. Some are shrill; some bass, some barking, some cooing, some hooting, some loud, some very low and so on. They are pop, jazz or rock. Each one separately may be disgusting, distasteful, nauseating and others unappreciable. But together they form the most celestial music. It is the music of the Universe: music of the conductor: God.

After each session the orchestra makes the music more better and move to perfection. Similarly man and the Universe after each performance or moment of existence move towards its perfection, which is its end. This end is the life with God in Heaven.

In this orchestra all kinds of instruments of tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, wickedness, and adultery are all necessary just as much as their opposites. Darkness and light are both creations of God. Without darkness we cannot know what is light. Evil is necessary to know what is good.

“I bring both blessings and disaster” Isaiah 45:7. Hard things and sufferings are also from God. See John 4:6, 7. God created a leafy plant over Jonah’s head to protect him. But he also created a worm to eat it away.

God is love. God is good. God created everything in this world. Everything he created is good .The good people and saints are as much needed as the wicked and the bad. For Him all these are necessary to move his much loved sons to perfection. For Him none of these are bad. Jesus does not condemn even the woman caught in adultery. John 8:11. Each one of his creations has a role to play in the orchestra.

All the wickedness and sufferings are created as challenges to man to overcome them. All of us perceive, understand and try to solve all these sufferings and wickedness and thus by step-by-step move forward in our march to perfection. So whatever we find as bad around us is our hurdle and stepping-stone to heaven for those who want to go there. And God wants everyone to be there.

Prof Joseph K. Alexander

Department of World Peace

A speech by Prof. Joseph K. Alexander at “Towards establishing a Department of Peace in Sovereign states” discussion on 3rd march 2006 at Press Club Hall organized by IIPA and Gandhi Media Centre and Centre for Gandhian Studies, University of Kerala.

Department of World Peace

Pre- Society man.
Man is a social animal. But individually he is a bundle of unlimited material and immaterial human wants, a self-seeker, a fighter to satisfy his wants with any and all around. So his life in the Pre-society stage was “brutish, nasty and short” The cave man used to do whatever he thought was good to him. Hazlitt in his essay “On going a Journey” says that if you are alone in a train compartment, you can do whatever you want; to go naked, to dance or even stand on your head. But if there are others in the compartment, you cannot do these things.
Post-Society Stage.
When one becomes a member of a society, there are a lot of rules to obey. Basic nature of social life is desoverignised individual. He gives up a part of his absolute sovereignty or freedom to the society, so that the society can be formed and man can live peacefully together. The Social contract theory of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau highlight this aspect. Man in his different facets of life is a member of different social organizations. As a political animal, he has to obey the rules of state, as member of the religious group he has to keep the rules of the religion, as a member of the club; he has to keep to the rules of the club and so on. In other words peaceful existence in social life warrant self-control and obedience to the relevant rules of the organizations one is a member.
Globalised World.
With the onslaught of information technology and modern methods of mass communication the whole world has shrunk to a tiny ball about which we come to know whatever and whenever it happen in any apart of it. In this globalised world, peaceful existence warrant obedience by all States or nation states to the rules of co-existence. In other words each nation has to have self-control and respect for other entities. Thus world peace can come about only when each individual, each family, each society, and nation- state impose self discipline, respect the rights of other similar social and political units and keep the rules of the game of world peace.
Visionaries.
It is the inadequacies of the present day social life that led many visionaries to dream about an ideal society and how to organize it. It is the concept of perfection inherent in human mind and the imperfect behaviour of man that prompted thinkers to imagine about a better social life and a social structure to lead homosapiens to a happy, prosperous and peaceful life. These dreams were social Political, economic, religious and what-not.
Sir Thomas Mora’s Utopia, Plato’s Ideal State, Marx’s Communist society, Gandhiji’s Rama Rajya or Grama Swaraj, Budhism of Guthama Budha, Maha Vir’s Jainism, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and teaching to obey thy God and love thy neighbour as thyself, Bhgawat Githa in Ramayana are all examples.
Self-restraint is the rule.
All these dreams have the basic approach. Man must restrain his instincts to sovereignty for the sake of peaceful existence as a social being with others. Respect and recognition of the rights of one’s neighbours is the essence of social life.
Attempts to bring international Peace started lately with the Peace Bureau originated by the peace Congress in Rome in 1891. A number of pacifists groups aspired for a peaceful existence
But then the militant imperialists brought the First World War. At the end of it the Word agreed to create the League of Nations to end the World war forever. The old Peace Bureau was given a decent burial in this League of Nations.
Even the League could not bring peace. Various peace movements that sprang up to counter the spirit of militarism even before the First World War, specially spearheaded by the socialists, also professed the peace move. But these very socialist were forced to abandon their professed ideal during the Second World War when they aligned with allies to defeat Germany and its Axis powers.
The end of the Second World War brought about a number of international organizations like the World Bank, IMF and The United Nations to end the War forever. USA led the world in these organizations to champion the cause of world peace.
Meanwhile the cold war between the west and the east led by Soviet Union, ended with the dissolution of USSR under the leadership of Gorbechov and his glasnost and perestroika.
The question was must the post -cold war international system should evolve according the play of power and interests of the nations? Would the bipolar world eventually end in uni-polar world led by UNO or would it fragment into a multi-polar-system with new threats and issues on ethnic and regional terrorism and violence?
If we look at the world after 1996, the prospect of world peace in a uni-polar system is bleak enough to be skeptic.
In the Middle East the Palestinian- Israeli conflict still remain unsolved. In the former Yugoslavia wide-scale fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 later forced Milosevic to accept a peace plan. But the issue still simmers, though he was extradited to Netherlands.
In Northern Ireland the Belfast agreement in 1998 was signed by Ireland and Northern Ireland, the issue of decommissioning the paramilitary groups continue to undermine the agreement. The British Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 on a formula of “one country two systems’. But now China is forcing Taiwan to endorse one China policy. In 1998 India and Pakistan started a series of nuclear tests despite the opposition of nuclear powers. .On the other hand the two Koreas have agreed to cooperate
Economic globalization brought benefits and cancers. The IMF, WB, WTO are now considered by the underdeveloped countries as machines of exploitation of the weaker nations of the world.
These all show how difficult it is to bring about peace.
A mere opening and operating a special department of peace cannot do much in bringing world peace. It can serve at best as an educative process towards world peace, whenever it can come up later in the world.