Re-visiting the Ethics of War in the Philosophy of St. Augustine, Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama

Abstract

In the Western imagination, both Gandhi and the Dalai Lama are the icons of non-violence, one a Hindu, the other a Buddhist, and both are pioneers of renewing the bond of one spiritual family of mankind that alone could spread the noble message of, ‘vasudha iva kutumbaka’ ‘all men our kinsmen’. They are the representatives of some of the best spiritual traditions of Asia. While one followed the footsteps of the Buddha, the other imbibed all noble truths from noble traditions of the world, showing equal reverence for the love of God in Ram-Rahim or Jesus, drawing inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita to the Sermon on the Mount, from the works of Henry David Thoreau to John Ruskin. Yet one also witnesses events that contradict these idealistic movements. Katherine Young points out that “because of Gandhi, people assumed that Indian was a pacifist society.” Yet she writes that the stereotype of Hindu non-violence “was shattered in May 1998 when India tested five nuclear bombs (Young, 2004).”1 This leads one to ponder the efficacy of these doctrines of non-violence and its implications in the pragmatic affairs of the world. How can one address the urgent issues of our time; such as war, violence, terrorism and threats of insecurity to life and property? I will cite instances from Gandhi’s ethics and then an attempt will be made to provide a distinctively Buddhist perspective. Finally, these two Asian perspectives are to be understood in terms of the contemporary moral perspectives that debate over issues of ‘just war’, a tradition that was originated in the philosophy of St. Augustine.