On April 11th 2013, we observed the GOLDEN JUBILEE of 'PACEM IN TERRIS' the path-breaking and visionary Encyclical written by Pope John XX111. In 2005 ,I was invited by the GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY,USA to deliver its Annual "Pacem in Terris" lecture...here it is
HUMAN RIGHTS: THE BASIS
FOR PEACE ON EARTH
-
Fr. Cedric Prakash sj*
Dr. John J. DeGioia, The President of Georgetown University
Fr. Phil Burroughs,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am extremely
honoured and privileged to be invited by the Georgetown University
At the outset, I
would like to visit the situation and the times of Pacem in Terris in order to understand its
relevance for us today more than forty years later.
Pacem in Terris draws attention to three
distinctive characteristics of the world of the early sixties. First, the
working classes were slowly emerging in the social, economic, political and
cultural spheres as they insisted “that they be regarded as men with a share in
every sector of human society" (# 40). Secondly, women were "becoming
ever more conscious of their human dignity" and claimed “both in domestic
and in public life the rights and duties that befit the human person" (#
42) and thirdly, men and women all over the world desired “the rank of citizens
in independent nations". The modern world, thus took "an entirely new
appearance in the field of social and political life" (# 42).
It
is indeed amazing that the very conditions, to which Pacem in Terris drew attention to forty-two years ago, are the very
conditions which are prevalent in our world today which has become so
fragmented due to consumerism and the ills of globalization, due to religious
and ethnic violence, and due to war and terrorism. The end of the cold war
broke down several barriers and this in turn saw the emergence of new nation
States. This period has also been pock-marked with civil, religious and ethnic
strife in several parts of the world. Like the times of Blessed Pope John XXIII, which was the
beginning of nuclear proliferation, Peace today, for us remains as
distant and elusive.
Pope John XXIII
makes human rights the bulwark of his encyclical saying that peace is possible
only if and when the rights of every human being are addressed. Pacem in Terris goes on to list eight
broad dimensions of human rights (most of them had earlier found expression in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) like the rights to proper
development of life, to basic security and to religion and conscience. And emphatically
stating that these rights are “universal, inviolable and inalienable”.
Pacem
in Terris therefore has its basis in
Human Rights. It observes that peace
needs to be based on an order "founded on truth, built according to
justice, vivified and integrated by charity, and put into practice in
freedom".
I need to
situate and provide a focus for this lecture – and for me personally, there is
no other reality that I know better, than my own home state of Gujarat in north-west
India India India India
So I invite you
in the course of this lecture to have a glimpse of Gujarat …
to see how people yearn for peace and yet how this peace will never be attained
until the rights of the poor, the weak, the marginalised, the minorities are
addressed and respected in every possible way.
Truth, justice,
love and freedom are human rights as we have said earlier. They also happen to
be conditions for human rights. Join me then in journeying to see how each one
of these dimensions is played out in Gujarat
today.
TRUTH
Pacem in Terris is very categorical in stating that peace needs to be based on an order
founded on truth.
It was Gujarat
that gave to the world, the apostle of truth and non-violence: Mahatma Gandhi.
It was in Ahmedabad that he founded his Ashram on the banks of the river
Sabarmati and for over a period of 14 years, he launched a movement which gave India her Independence India Gujarat
today is a far cry from the vision of Gandhi. Truth has been sacrificed at the
altar of falsehood, deception and hate.
In 2002, Gujarat
went through months of communal violence (In India we prefer to regard
religious violence as communal violence because it is in fact a small group of
fundamentalists who take law and order into their own hands. So it is not one
religion fighting with the other as such but one small group claiming to
represent that religion who adopt a very fundamentalist ideology) in what is
regarded today as the Gujarat carnage. In the aftermath of the burning of the
carriage of a train on Feb 27, 2002, in which about 60 people (mainly Hindus)
were burnt to death, more than 2000 Muslims were mercilessly slaughtered in the
city of Ahmedabad and in other parts of Gujarat State. Till today, it has not
been established as to who was responsible for the burning of the train or if
it was a mere accident. The fact that people had to die such a terrible death
did receive all round condemnation.
At this juncture I would like to make a small
digression. For the last several years, we have the emergence of a small Hindu
right wing group in India India
But what was even more shameful and horrific was
the manner in which Muslims were singled out, made responsible for the burning
of the train and were brutalised in every possible manner, the details of which
are too horrendous to enumerate at this point.
Human rights and other groups from Gujarat
and the world over were forthright in their demand for wanting the truth of
these massacres to be made public. More than three years down the road, the
truth on this violence has not yet emerged. The people responsible, we know
still roam the streets and some of them even hold high public office (Many of
them motivated by the ideology of Hindutva).
The only consolation that one can have at this
moment is that oft-said dictum “truth shall prevail.” This dictum is emblazoned
on our national emblem: three standing lions which was a symbol of one of the
most loved kings of India
Truth is also a culture and an attitude;
something which has to be cultivated, a lesson which has to be taught and
learnt. We have classic examples even in
this country of how a honest Abe rose to become the President of the United States Gujarat we educate our children (at a very
impressionable age) with half truths, lies and prejudices which is a clear
violation of a child’s right to be educated objectively and truthfully. I would
like to highlight just a couple of examples from our Std. IX text book in Social
Sciences (which was published by the Gujarat Government in June 2005). In the
chapter on India ’s freedom
struggle, the role of Mahatma Gandhi (to whom I have just referred) is
minimalised and inspite of being widely regarded
as the “Father of the Nation”, his picture does not figure among those who were
supposed to have given freedom to India
Truth is the first step in the acknowledgement
of a wrong….towards reconciliation, harmony and peace.
Yes, human rights can flourish only in truth.
But our reality is definitely a far cry from the beautiful prayer we say from
one our sacred texts, the Upanishads:
“ From the untruth lead me to the
truth
From darkness lead me to light
From death lead me to immortality”
JUSTICE
Pacem in Terris highlights the imperative for peace built according to justice.
It cannot be otherwise. Justice we are
convinced is foundational to Peace. Only when there is justice we are able to
ensure the protection of human rights.
A Citizens Tribunal headed by a former Justice
of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Krishna Iyer, has brought out a report
entitled ‘Crime against Humanity’, in which several people from every strata of
society have been indicted for the Gujarat Carnage. The report emphatically
states that justice was a major casualty in Gujarat
and unless justice was restored there would be no real peace in the state.
Today, the victims of the Gujarat
carnage are still denied justice and more than 2000 cases have to come up for
hearing in our courts. Everybody knows that the key persons responsible for the
violence continue living their lives as though nothing had happened with total
immunity and with impunity too.
How does one interpret a reality that if one is
a Muslim in Ahmedabad today, one cannot buy a house or have a business
establishment in the western upmarket part of the city; one necessarily has to
be confined to a ghetto and in some of these ghettos, for example in Juhapura,
which borders one part of the city of Ahmedabad, thousands of Muslims live
without access to a public transport system, a public banking service or even a
public water and drainage system.
The very same group (who obviously follow the
Hindutva ideology and have constantly demonised Muslims and Christians) have
also systematically marginalised the Dalits (low-caste) and the Adivasis
(tribals) of our State. The rights guaranteed to them in our Constitution are
constantly denied to them. It’s unbelievable but true that in many of our villages,
a low-caste (Dalit) does not have the right to drink water from the well of a
higher caste community. There is a concerted move to re-name Adivasis (orginal
inhabitants of the land) as Vanvasis (dwellers of the forests). Its common
knowledge that they resent the latter nomenclature for the simple reason is
that once the forests disappear they will lose their identity. Their identity
is with the land and there have been moves by the powers that control their
destinies to take away the land in which they have lived for hundreds of years.
One can go on highlighting the injustices that
are rampant in our society. Injustices which prevent a person from his or her holistic
development; which keep people at the level of subjugation, which are an
affront to human dignity.
LOVE
Love is the next dimension highlighted in Pacem in Terris. Pope John XXIII strongly
asserts that peace has to vivified and integrated by charity. Love is
foundational in Christianity and all the worlds’ religion emphasise this one
single aspect of the human spirit. It is love that helps us establish
relationships. It is love that breaks down barriers.
The sad part of it is that all this is easier
said than done. In Gujarat , concerted efforts
are made to instil hate, prejudice, and discrimination; the targets more often
than not are those belonging to minority communities. An ideology which flaunts
the one nation, one culture, one religion theory has no room for anyone else who
thinks differently, worships differently or even dresses differently! The
defining statement is that “since they are not ‘like’ us, therefore they are
not ‘us’… they do not belong here.”
An effort was made to bring together several
Hindus to help put a stop to the violence that had engulfed Gujarat
in 2002; the stock responses of many educated well-to-do friends were often
ridiculous and dangerous. “Look what they have done to the WTC in the United States Pakistan
We experience hate and prejudice even among
little children as the games they enjoy most are violent ones in which the
person belonging to the “other” community becomes the victim, the hunted, the
evil one. Similar games are played in Hindu areas and in Muslim areas. In the
Hindu side it is the “Muslim” who always has to be killed and in the Muslim
side the “Hindu” always has to be killed. Expletives and abuses are always with
reference to the other side.
Discrimination and prejudice are manifested in
a variety of ways: when children have to be admitted to a school, when the
youth apply for a job and if for example, as I mentioned earlier, a Muslim
intends to buy an apartment in the upmarket part of the city.
It is obvious then, that unless these barriers
are broken, unless we are able to transcend the narrow confines of bigotry and
hatred and move towards the expression and action of sincere acceptance and
love, we will never have true peace.
FREEDOM
Peace has to be put into practice in Freedom.
The words of John XXIII ring loud and clear even today.
On March 26th, 2003, the Government
of Gujarat unanimously passed the Freedom of Religion Act. This act is
absolutely draconian in nature and goes against the constitutional freedoms
guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and very specifically Article 25 which guarantees
to every single citizen the right to preach, practice and/ or propagate his/
her religion. A significant point of this law is that if a person wants to
change to another religion, then one necessarily has to take the permission of
the civil authority; if this permission is not granted, and if one still
changes then one is liable to a period of imprisonment and also to pay a heavy
fine. An added clause to this that if the violator happens to be a minor, a
woman, a tribal or a Dalit then the imprisonment and fine is just doubled. The
irony is that even till today more than two years after the passing of this
legislation, the rules necessary for governing the implementation of this law
has not been framed, hence petty officials use this as the Damocles’ sword as
was done to a groups of Dalits who wanted to convert to Buddhism recently.
Another dreaded law is the Prevention of
Terrorism Activity (POTA) Over the past three years, this law in Gujarat has been selectively used only against the Muslims;
they have been put in jail without giving them the possibility to apply for
bail or to seek legal redress with the possibility of hearing their side of the
story. One can go on illustrating example after example of how individual
freedoms are trampled upon today. The fact remains that unless we create that
environment in which every single citizen feels free and secure we will not be
able to establish that freedom which our poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore
prayed for in his celebrated epic Gitanjali (the song of God) which I use at
the conclusion of this talk.
The challenges before us are many. As I said
earlier, Gujarat is a great place and the idea
why some of its negatives have been highlighted today is purely with a view
that these need to be addressed in order to preserve the rich cultural
heritage, the religious plurality and the tremendous diversity that exists in
our society.
We need peace. But in order to have that peace,
the rights of every single person have to be respected. Those rights which
emerge from truth, justice, love and freedom.
In Sabarkantha District in the north of Gujarat , live a group of tribals called the Garasia
Adivasis. Some of them still follow a tradition during the festival of Spring. On
a certain day at the break of dawn, the whole village comes out to the beating
of drums and loud shouts. They are in search of tiny black bird called “Devli”.
It normally nests in little thorny
bushes. They easily find one and begin chasing it with their shouts and with
the drumming. Since the Devli cannot fly high it ultimately falls panting with
exhaustion and it is easily caught by a villager. Very ceremoniously the
headman of the village to whom this bird is brought, feeds it with molasses and
some butter. The bird is released and allowed to fly. The whole village waits
with abated breathe to see where the bird will sit after the flight. If it sits
on a dry branch, then that means the rain will not come and it will be a year
of drought. If it sits on a green one it means good rains and a year of plenty.
The story has a wonderful parallel in the ark of Noah which finds mention in
the sacred texts of three of the world religions but of course there the bird
is the dove with the olive branch.
In a way we are in a similar position today. We
are not sure what the future holds for each one of us. But one thing is certain
is that we who have gathered here do not have to rely on a little bird to tell
us whether we can have peace on earth or not. We have the answer. It is an
answer for which we need to take a stand and which has to be based on truth,
justice, love and freedom. We need to create an ownership for them and make
sure that these rights belong to all men and women of our times… only then we
will have Peace on Earth.
As a conclusion, I invite you to pray with me
the words of Rabindranath Tagore:
Where the mind is without fear and
the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free,
Where the world has not been broken
up into fragments by narrow domestic walls,
Where words come out from the depth
of truth,
Where tireless striving stretches
its arms towards perfection,
Where the clear stream of reason has
not lost its way into the dreary desert sands of dead habit,
Where the mind is led forward by
thee into ever widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my
country awake!
Thank you very much!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This
lecture was delivered as part of the “Pacem in Terris” series at the Georgetown University ,
Washington D.C. , USA
*Fr.
Cedric Prakash sj is the Director of
PRASHANT, the Jesuit Centre of Human Rights, Justice and Peace based in
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, North-west India India
for the promotion of communal peace and harmony in 1995 and the Rafi Ahmed
Kidwai award for Humanitarian Service by the Indian Muslim Council , USA
PRASHANT – A Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace
Street Address: Hill Nagar, Near Kamdhenu Hall, Drive-in-Road,
Ahmedabad-380 052, Gujarat ,
India
Postal Address: P. Bo. 4050, Navrangpura PO, Ahmedabad – 380 009, Gujarat , India
Phone: 91 79 27455913, 55522333
Fax: 91 79 27489018
Pacem in Terris
makes an exhaustive list of human rights which include the following:
- rights to life and worthy
standard of living, including rights to proper development of life and to
basic security (#11).
- rights of cultural and moral
values, including freedom to search for and express opinions, freedom of
information, and right to education (#'s 12-13).
- rights to religion and
conscience (# 14).
- rights to choose one's state in
life, including rights to establish a family and pursue a religious vocation
(#'s 15 – 16).
- economic rights, including right
to work, to a just and sufficient wage, and to hold private property (@'s
18 – 22).
- rights of meeting and
association (# 23).
- right to emigrate and immigrate
(# 25).
- political rights, including
right to participate in public affairs and juridical protection of rights
(#'s 26 – 27)
.
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