The three reality tests

He then proceeded to show that nonviolence could and did do what violence could never achieve. Furthermore, he insisted that violence hurts not only the targeted one but everyone else, including the doer of violence.

Nuclear energy in any form is violent. True, it can do and has done some wonderful things in medicine, but it is increasingly clear thatthe merest error is instantly deadly. It has also been shown to be capable of providing much-needed power, but Chernobyl should have taught us a lesson.

Most of us — especially children — love to see a good fireworks display but do we think of the many tragedies that take place every year in the fireworks industry? And we all know that no child must be allowed to play with fire.

But now we, the nation, are playing with fire. We are kidding ourselves in our belief that now the whole world will regard us with respect and fear — or at least be more circumspect about provoking — India with its now-proven capability of playing with fire.

It is ridiculous to pretend that we will only use it as a Big Bang to frighten enemies away. The currently popular word is "deterrent". Did the Allies drop their atom bomb on Hiroshima in the belief that their Big Bang would merely frighten a few million naughty Japanese?

How can we be so childish? The day will surely come when some powerful person or government willget trigger-happy with its non-proliferated toy. In a flash a few million will be dead, and millions more around the world will turn into permanent invalids. So much for our professions of nonviolence! In these "tests" we have clearly demonstrated to the world that we are about as nonviolent as a cornered viper or a trapped lion.

There is yet another aspect of our nation about which Gandhiji was continuously concerned, and which we must not push under the bed and forget about. Alas, it remains the same old story which those of us in affluence prefer to ignore — we still have millions of half-starved people; millions of families without a few square yards of land; homeless families; villages, tribal communities and slums with no access to education and health facilities.

Are any of us naive enough to believe that our five explosions have been the result of the quiet, selfless, cost-free work of a handful of brilliant scientists tucked away in a few old laboratories? It is not an exaggeration to say thatforty million homeless families could have all had houses for half the money the government has spent on Pokharan II.

I believe strongly that as a nation, we must create an achievable priority list, so that all Indians will be proud of belonging to a nation which is nonviolent, ecofriendly and anti-poverty. Gandhiji did not carry his lathi to tell people that if nonviolence failed, there were other means to make them sit up and take notice.

The schoolboy wrote, "In the Western Countries, Gentlemen spent their time in Hunting, Shooting and Fussion." Let us think of Gandhi, not of those "Western Gentlemen".