Great souls, Nobel intentions

"Aah! Muhammad Yunus!" I exclaimed as I looked at a picture in the half open magazine lying at one of the tables in the reception area of my doctor's clinic. The elderly lady next to me gave a questioning glance. "Micro-financing" I clarified. She attempted a smile that translated to sarcastic "Ah! That helped" and dug into the health magazine she was reading. It was November in 2006 and a month earlier a Bangladeshi gentleman named Mohammad Yunus shot to fame. It was decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 was to be jointly shared by Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank for their effort towards peace as "Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. " By providing micro-credit through his Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus had provided a way for people to break out of poverty. It is surprising indeed that not many people I know seem to recognize him despite such a great recognition being bestowed on him.

The Nobel Prizes (The Nobel Prize for Peace being one among them) was first given away 1901 as per the will of Alfred Nobel who died in 1896 leaving behind a large legacy accrued from the huge sales of his invention - dynamite. The Nobel Prize's popularity can be compared to that of dynamite since it is endorsed worldwide as the greatest achievement in the fields for which it is awarded. Being easily associated with the best of the best, it is therefore questioned by many as to why a certain gentleman named Mohandas Gandhi - whose name had become eponymous with peace - was never awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Many have tried to speculate about the causes and the easiest (and also the most absurd) guess is "because he was an Indian" and "there was racism". I am amazed at how racism has become the easiest reason that can be attributed to any conflict. A peek into history shows that Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 and Sir C V Raman, the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.

Indians were already in the radar of the Nobel Committee way before Mahatma Gandhi was first nominated in 1937, so the idea of the committee being averse to awarding non-Europeans or Americans can be safely laid to rest**. It can be gathered from a clarification posted on the website of the Nobel Peace Prize that Mahatma Gandhi's nomination in 1937 did not convert to an award as some of the committee's advisers' questions Mahatma Gandhi's style of leadership which a committee adviser felt, was driven by "sharp turns in his policies". An incident that occurred more than a decade and a half earlier (the Chauri Chaura Massacre*) was also highlighted to illustrate that Gandhiji did not have control over his followers who have in the past adopted violent methods against the British. Gandhiji had galvanized the agony of millions oppressed by the British dominance into a blunt instrument of non-violence that would peacefully yet firmly edge out the oppressors from the Indian soil. Few hundred among those millions were compelled to break loose from that resolve and the war cries of those few hundred, ironically were more audible to the committee as compared to the suppressed grunts of the millions who were facing bullets and batons elsewhere in India. Viscount Cecil of Chelwood won the most coveted recognition that year for his efforts towards the International Peace Campaign.

Mahatma Gandhi was nominated in 1938, 1939 and 1947 but did not win. He eventually nominated again for 1948 a few days before his assassination. The coming together of two universal symbols of peace was forever stalled by a lone gunman on that cold winter morning at Birla House, New Delhi for as per the statutes of Nobel Prize a posthumous award was out of question. No award was awarded in 1948 which makes us believe that the Peace Prize for 1948 should have gone to Gandhiji. Mahatma Gandhi never won a Nobel Peace Prize, yet the name Gandhi is well known the world over, better known than many recipients of the coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

Recognitions are important. There is an old lady living near Bangalore, India, who with assistance from her husband had planted close to 300 Banyan trees along a 4 kilometer stretch of a highway in Southern India. She received the National Citizens' Award for 1995 and soon became well known in the field of environmental conservation. It was important to honor this lady, for with that award her efforts could be made an example for others to follow. The frail old man with an iron will was different, he was a legend way before he was first nominated for the Nobel Prize. And though its unfortunate that death snatched from him that award that had to be his in 1948, his work and fame had spread far and wide despite the absence of an internationally recognized laurel.

* * *

Back at the clinic, I struck a conversation with the lady and when I mentioned that I had travelled from India on a work assignment, she said in an excited tone - "My daughter is writing about Gandhi for her history project in school!!".

Notes:

* In 1922 a group of Indian protesters went out of control in the town of Chauri Chaura, India and set a police station on fire, killing 23 policeman.
**Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize one year before she received the Bharath Ratna, India's equivalent of the Medal of Freedom.

References:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/index.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html