The victories of war! – Who does not know these and honour these? Poets sing their praises; historians record their glories; theaters rehearse them in mimic action; we all recall them with pride. Great epics have grown round the deeds of heroes on the field of battle. Even today, men read of the exploits of Arjun or the wrath of Achilles with wonder and admiration. The victories won on the fields of battle are spectacular and inspiring.
Novelists like to weave romances round the glorious exploits of Rana Pratap or Sivaji, and to invest them with the rich glamor of imagination. We find a strange pleasure in reading the heroic acts of an Alexander or a Napoleon, a Kubla Khan to found empires stretching to the ends of the earth.
If we recall the victories of war, we will recall only stories of lands laid waste, cities burnt or looted the horrific tale of leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. In ancient times people were put to sword mercilessly and enslaved; the fury of conquerors, such genocide or large-scale killing of the flowers of the enemy nation in the name of conquest is nothing but barbarous acts which should make one and ponder, like the boy is Southey’s poem “After Blenheim”—at what a terrible cost of blood and brutality such a victory was achieved? The barbarousness of the victories of war is sometimes overwhelming. These are not instances of chivalry and humanity which would make the world a better and happier place to live in.
In our reflective moments, we attach greater importance to the victories of peace. Battles are like flashes of lightning, brilliant but momentary. But a time of peace has the radiance of the sun or the tender glow of the moon. Peacetime deeds might not dazzle us, but they have a soothing influence.
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Civilization, which we prize, is the slow achievement of workers in peacetime. Science and poetry, religion and philosophy-these are creations of thinking mind during the piping times of peace. It is in the peaceful atmosphere of universities, academies and monasteries that Plato expounded his philosophy, Kalidas composed his melodious verses, Raphael worked at his glorious painting and great scientists harnessed nature and laid the foundations of a new civilization.
The phenomenal cultural progress of the nineteenth century was due to the long period of peace that Europe then enjoyed. Are the conquests of the Air by the invention of the aeroplane, doing away with time, the discoveries, of the victories over germs and viruses, studies in the mysteries of the atom of victories in any way less glorious than the victories won by great conquerors on the fields of Panipat or of Waterloo?
We remember Asoka not for his conquest of Kalinga but for the message of peace and brotherhood that conquered the minds of men at home and abroad. We honour Akbar not for his military victories but for his noble attempt to weld together the warring sects of India in bonds of amity. Elizabeth’s greatness is more due to the poetry and drama that she inspired in her age than to the Armada attack that England repulsed.
We are not bothered about who won the Crimean War and the Czar of Russia or the Sultan of Turkey. But we all remember with gratitude the selfless services of Florence Nightingale at the military hospital at Scutari with her band of devoted nurses. She conquered the hearts of wounded and ailing soldiers who lovingly called her ‘Lady with the Lamp’. Columbus discovered America not by sword but by nautical compass and courage. Man’s bitterest enemies are ignorance, disease and poverty. These can be conquered only by patience and sympathetic service, not by sword and shackle.
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The modern world affords large opportunities for using times of peace to extend man’s powers over the hostile forces of Nature. Today more and more countries are coming to realize the futility of war as a means to progress, ignoring Man. So they are more eager to conquer Nature and the space. They have shown that rivers can be dammed as a source of power; that wasteland can be afforested and deserts reclaimed. If there is world-peace, progress may be possible on a worldwide scale. War hysteria can only harness atomic energy for destroying human lives. But if there is peace, the world will be transformed for the benefit of humanity by the application of atomic power. The peacetime application of science will usher in an age far more glorious than anything man has ever dreamt of; it will create a heaven on earth. So Gen. McArthur said “Force is not a solution for human problems. It never has the last word.”
The victories of peace are won in the laboratory of the scientist, in the closet of the scholar, in the cabinet of the statesman, on the pulpit of the preacher. All honour certainly goes to the heroes of the fields of war; but greater heroes are they who work for humanity’s good – not for wealth, not for applause, not for power, but for the love of common humanity. And that these are the victories that Asia has always cherished, Buddha triumphing over evil by non-violence; Chaitanya conquering hatred by love; Christ was dying on the Cross to atone for the sins of man, Gandhi sacrificing his life for the ideals of peace and non-violence, at the altar or truth. So Matthew Arnold said- The East let the thundering legion past / and plunged in thought again.