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There can't be peace with hunger: Dr Karan Singh

Ajit Jain
Indian Abroad Correspondent in Toronto

If people are hungry, they are starving and there is stark inequality. There can't be peace in such an unjust structure,'' said Dr Karan Singh, member of Parliament, former minister and India's ambassador to the United States.

In his keynote address, The Many Dimensions of Peace, at the Center for Peace Studies, McMaster University in Hamilton, near Toronto, Singh on June 13 discussed peace under six categories -- international, regional, national, environmental, family and individual.

To him lack of peace, which could be called violence, does not mean "physical violence". An unjust structure could as well result in violence in society, he said.

He went on to analyse differences in the social structure in Canada and developing countries. "Unemployment in Canada doesn't mean starvation. Unemployed Canadians get money from the government at various levels. Unemployment for people in India means starvation," Singh said.

International peace will come through nuclear disarmament and negotiations, he argued. The 20th century was most lethal century in human history, he stated.

Singh then turned to regional peace with reference to the European Union and the South Asian Council for Regional Cooperation.

If Germany and France, that were at the throats of each other for long, could become part of Europe with a currency, why should it be difficult for India and Pakistan to live in friendly and harmonious relations that help people in both countries, he asked.

So, regionally people have to co-operate and talk to each other, Singh suggested.

At the national level, he suggested that economy, poverty, unemployment were significant factors to ensure peace in the country, and in any society. If people are hungry and starving, what does peace mean to these people, he asked.

India talks of self-sufficiency in food, but does it by implication mean all one billion Indians are properly fed? His reply was in the negative. ''There may be foodgrains in the country, but if people don't have money to buy food, we could give all statistics as to how food production in the country has increased, yet people go hungry.''

Peace means different things in different contexts and there are different levels of peace. "In the west, peace means the absence of war", but in developing countries people want to be fed and clothed properly to ensure peace, he suggested.

There has to be peace within the family, women have to be treated equally, there has to be harmony between men, women and children and then inner peace, peace within ourselves, Singh went on to explain, quoting from the Vedas and other holy scriptures.

Dr Rama Singh of McMaster University, who initiated the peace lectures eight years back under the auspices of the Center for Peace Studies, praised Karan Singh . "India is going through a social and economic revolution and at times it looks more like a simmering civil war! But among all these tumultuous happenings, Dr Karan Singh provides a calm and determined voice and exhorts Indians to face the future without fear and hold on to the age-old Vedantic message of freedom from fear."

Dr Mark Vorobej, director of the Center for Peace Studies chaired the lecture and Dr Daniel Woolf, dean of Humanities at McMaster University, made the introductory remarks.

The guests included Ranjit Singh Kalha, secretary (west) in the Indian ministry of external affairs and Indian High Commissioner Ranjikanta Verma.

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