Page 74 - Age of Peace Goodword.indd

Violent Activism,

Peaceful Activism



he English historian Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794) observed
Tin his famous work The History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire,
‘History is indeed little more than the register of crimes,
follies, and misfortunes of mankind.’ 1
This is a negative remark. But every event of history,
whether it be negative or positive, has a lesson for us. In this
sense, it would be right to say that history is full of useful
lessons. European politicians fought two wars: World War I
(1914 – 1918) and World War II (1939 – 1945). The combined
military and civilian casualties in these two wars numbered
about 90 million. The economy of the continent suffered
serious setbacks and constructive works such as education
were severely hampered. Historians have never reported any
positive gain resulting from these world wars.
In the same Europe there was another activity going on
concurrently. This activity was conducted by scientists,
educationists and other thinking people. The result produced
by this second group was quite different: it culminated in
glorious historical developments which brought to us heights
of modern civilization till then unscaled.
The first group can be thought of as comprising violent
activists, while the second group consisted of peaceful
activists. Violent activism did not give anything to the world,

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