January 4, 2012

In the 35 years of his career as a diplomat Pascal Alan Nazareth had numerous opportunities to witness and watch from close quarters varied people, governments and cultures, societies of all hues, religion, race and ethnicity. This experience has only enriched him giving him a deeper insight into the problems faced by the world at large. This exposure also made him realize that the only way to promote peace and harmony in today’s highly polarized world where there is so much of violence, fear, mistrust, hatred and animosity, is by reviving and promoting Gandhian ideals of truth and non-violence.

Having realized that Gandhi is much more relevant these days Alan Nazareth founded the Sarvodaya International Trust in 1995 soon after his retirement from Indian Foreign Service. Through this institution he has been trying his best to promote and propagate Gandhian ideals and the need to follow Gandhi in letter and spirit in a form and manner to suit the contemporary age. He has taken it as a challenge to reach out to the whole lot of new people and particularly the younger generation for whom Gandhi is an obscure figure. He says the 9/11 incident is the best example to show that the world is increasingly in the conflict mould and the events that followed it has shown that conflagration has reached a stage of dangerous proportion. The bombing of the World Trade Centre has shown that despite being a super power having the best arms and ammunition America could not prevent the attack on the symbols of its economic might. “In a situation like this unless we find ways for non-violent solutions for such conflicts we will destroy ourselves”, he states as a matter of fact.

Violence vs Peace

While the events of 9/11 has taken the entire world by surprise, Alan says he had comprehended the dangers emanating from anger among the Muslims (due to oppressive policies of USA) and in an address at San Francisco at World Affairs Council just three weeks before the 9/11 incident he had spoken about dangers of Islamic Fundamentalism because of the way their countries have been treated by US. Reflecting on fundamentalism he says the world ‘fundamentalism’ originated in in Christianity in US as Darwin’s theory of evolution shocked and contradicted what was preached in the bible. Hence the bible society in US decided to bring out a series of booklets titled “The Fundamentals”. These papers clarified the beliefs of conservative Christians to preserve the faith from the threats of time and the word fundamentalism was derived from it. From there it spread to other religions.

Mangalorean Pascal Alan Nazareth (now based in Bangalore) who holds a Masters Degree in Economics from Madras University was selected for the Indian Foreign Service in 1959. During his three and half decades of service he has served in India’s diplomatic and consular missions in Tokyo, Rangoon, Lima, London, Chicago and New York. As ambassador he has served in Liberia, Upper Volta, Togo, Egypt, Mexico, Gautemala, El Salvador and Belize.

During his service he has worked a great deal to encourage cultural and intellectual exchanges between India and the many countries where he served in various capacities from time to time. As a result of the worldwide exposure he acquired during his service Alan was convinced of the relevance of Gandhi and his ideals and decided to devote his time and energy to propagate them to the world at large which led to the establishment of Sarvodaya International Trust, an international Mahatma Gandhi movement to promote communal harmony, non-violence, humanitarian service and peace. Alan says “what triggered my decision to spend my retired years to revive and promote Gandhian ideals and communal harmony was the events relating to Babri Masjid in 1992 and the vicious communalism that preceded and followed it. I decided that it is better to light one little candle than curse the darkness”.

Gandhi – from Good to Great

The organization has been working perpetually to revive, invigorate and diffuse ideals of Gandhi, to suit the contemporary world by networking with people and organizations working in this direction. In 2006 Alan write his widely acclaimed book “Gandhi’s Outstanding Leadership”, which was released by former Prime Minister I K Gujral. In the book Alan analyses threadbare Gandhi’s leadership qualities finally concluding that Gandhi is the ideal leadership model for the world. It is said to be a very comprehensive book on Mahatma Gandhi and it won the author wide acclaim. That the book has been translated into Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu and also in Portuguese, clearly testifies the popularity of the book. By October 2012, the book will be published even in Spanish. Alan Nazareth declares “I am pleasantly surprised by the positive response evoked by the book. I don’t think any other book on Gandhi has been published in seven different languages in less than six years”.

Elaborating on how Gandhi is relevant even today when the world has undergone far reaching changes and especially to the youth who are oblivious of Gandhi’s ideals Alan says “Gandhi propagated a combination of ideals of both Krishna and Christ. Gandhi’s achievement is that he “revolutionized the revolution itself”. When India won its independence it became the 54th member of UN. Today UN has about 193 members which mean that all these countries attained independence after India. Most of these countries could attain independence without much of bloodshed and through unharmed revolutions. That has been Gandhi’s message to the world, his ideals having world-wide impact”.

Gandhi’s Inspiration Evident

He also cites the example of American intellectual and one of the leading scholars of non-violence Gene Sharp, (greatly influenced by Gandhi’s non-violent methods) whose practical writings on non-violent revolution inspired dissidents around the world from Europe to Africa and most recently in the Middle East starting with Egypt and Tunisia. These developments clearly signify that Gandhi’s ideals have greater relevance today and the Egyptians youth have demonstrated it clearly by toppling their dictator by non-violent revolution.

Alan says Gandhi, Vivekananda and Mother Teresa are the three individuals who have transformed themselves from good to great. He further adds “ it is a matter of great privilege and honour for India that in one century it has produced three individuals who have risen from ‘good to greatness’ which is a rarity considering that such people come once in 300 to 500 years”. It goes to the credit of Gandhi, Alan says that his birthday is observed as “international non-violence day” as a tribute to the man who propagated non-violence to overthrow the colonial rulers”.

Quoting George Orwell, English author and journalist Alan says Gandhi’s greatness also lie in the fact that he made the British leave India but still maintained friendly relationship with them even after independence. In this era when violence and conflagration rules the rust and where non-violent movements against injustice and violence have also managed to find success shows that Gandhi’s influence still reigns as Orwell had rightly said “to disinfect” the political air.

Even at 75, Alan, a strong believer in Shankara’s Advaitha Philosophy, globe trots to propagate Gadhian philosophy. As the Managing Trustee of Sarvodaya Trust International based in Bangalore, he is being invited as guest lecturer to various universities in India and the world over. He says that he was greatly honoured when Benaras Hindu University invited him in January 2011 to address a seminar on “fathoming the sources and contemporary significance of Swami Vivekananda’s humanism and universalism”.

In recognition of his service in promoting Gandhian ideals Alan has been presented with U Thant Peace Award in October 2007 by Sri Chinmay Peace Meditation Group at the United Nations for his “life time of dedication and world service by promoting Gandhian values of truth, non violence, communal harmony and humanitarian service”. This award puts him along with some of the great leaders of the world like Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu, who are also the recipients of this award.

True to its international status Sarvodaya Trust he has founded, has international personalities as its office bearers and trustees including princess Irene of Greece, who is the Vice Chairman, grandson of Leo Tolstoy Vladimir Tolstoy, Glenn D Paige of US and many eminent Indian personalities like Justice Venkatachalaiah, Soli Sorabji, Raj Mohan Gandhi and many others. The trust has 10 regional chapters spread across the country and through them the work of preserving, promoting and propagating Gandhian ideals is being done on a concerted note.

So, for all those who question Gandhian relevance in today’s globalised world, Alan and his Sarvodaya Trust has been giving a befitting answer through its work. Alan reiterates that we don’t need another Gandhi if we follow what Mahatma Gandhi has taught and practiced. Considering that the world has become increasingly polarized in today’s nuclear age the choice, as Martin Luther King Junior, Gadhi’s principal American disciple had said, “Is clearly between non-violence and non-violence” looks germane. As such, the work carried out by Alan and his Trust is to be admired and emulated by all the advocate of peace.