On April 21, 2023, the founder and president of the Tibet House in New York, Robert AF Thurman, supported India’s candidature for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Thurman said that the five UN Security Council members could not resolve conflicts diplomatically and have engaged in wars while India has the potential to bring peace to the world.
He said, “Today in the UN, the five permanent members are the largest arms dealers in the world, so they naturally will not make peace, and that has to be changed. For example, India, a huge country should be a permanent member of the UNSC. Brazil, Germany and Japan and not just the five people who think they have won the world war.”
Terming India as the land of Gautam Buddha, Tirthankara Mahavira and Mahatma Gandhi, Thurman said that India is promoting peace through Buddhism.
He asserted that India has every right to be the centre of the congregation of all Buddhists as it has been following the principles of non-violence and has shown the path of peace to the world rather than war, which some countries have been adopting to invade another country.
As per Thurman, attacking the enemy in another country to defend your country is admissible but invading another nation to occupy it is terrible.
He said “The US had a right to attack their enemy in Afghanistan who bombed New York, but after that, to occupy another country was a terrible mistake. Russia invaded Ukraine and that is also terrible.
“Well, I see in the terms that PM Narendra Modi laid out earlier on April 20, 2023, where he mentioned that India has a principle of nonviolence and peace rather than war as done many countries, their major effort or expense is defence and which they call it defence and then invades another country. For example, The US foolishly invaded Iraq the second time and Afghanistan occupied.”
Thurman made these remarks as he came to attend the Global Buddhist Summit in New Delhi. The two-day event is being hosted by the Ministry of Culture (India) and International Buddhist Confederation (IBC). The theme of this summit is “Responses to Contemporary Challenges: Philosophy to Praxis.
Thurman said that India is a land where Buddha took birth and has every right to be the centre of all Buddhists. Continuing, he said, “India has never done an invasion on anybody, not perfect of course, but they have a right to defend themselves of course, on the other hand, India has a right because of Gandhi, Buddha, Mahavira and Jains to say that nonviolence is the principle of the country and it makes sense.
And it also happens to be on land on the subcontinent where Buddha took birth, although the modern country of India did not exist at that time, there were many small countries. So, they have every right to be the centre of assembling all Buddhists and stand for the principle and even not to giving hope that the world can be at peace.”
Speaking about the Dalai Lama remarks at the global summit, he said “His Holiness the Dalai Lama who also blessed the conference enormously by coming today. He always says and has been saying for thirty years that the 20th Century was the century of terrible violence as the World Wars marked the end of colonialism worldwide and the 21st Century must be the century of peace.
Unfortunately, in the first 23 years of the 21st Century, there have been terrible wars, and the US is guilty to some extent, and my country (US) is guilty of unprovoked wars.”
Responding to a question regarding the Chinese expansionist policies, he termed dictatorship is as dangerous as the dictator has to suppress his own people but the Chinses nationals like freedom.
“Well, you see, the danger of dictatorship is dangerous has to suppress his own people because it is not true that Chinese people are not the same human beings who do not like freedom because they are. There are some theories that Chinese people do not want a democracy, and they pretend Western or some nonsense like that. Actually, Chinese people are just people, and every people in the family like to be free.” he said.
He added- “They (Chinese) do not want to be completely under one person and their talent does not come out unless they are free and not creative. So, the point which I see is that dictatorships are dangerous because their own people resent being bossed around by the dictator.
So, the dictator has to push that there is an enemy out there, then they try to deflect the resentment of people against them or against a foreigner and they awake a war which is an age-old principle that everyone can observe in history.
So, we do not need the governance and where people can have their say right at home and if you are free to say it, then they will disagree and there might be local squabbles and fights because humans are like that. But overall, they are not estranged to an enemy to a neighbour that is really important.”
He emphasised that Buddhism can play a part in spreading peace and harmony in the world.
“Buddhism can do that, Dalai Lama has a slogan in which he says that the world peace through inner peace, which means that if people learn to control themselves and be friendly and peaceful with each other, then they wont have violence and conflict.”
In the end, Thurman believes that if the world sees other people of the world as a family, then there would get along and will not have issues with each other.
Thurman has been a recipient of India’s Padma Shri Award.
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