Evolve satyagraha appropriate to our times: Sonia

New Delhi, Jan 29: Cautioning the world against writing off the Gandhian approach as irrelevent to our age, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today called for evolving a non-violent method appropriate to our times marked by ''the scourge of terrorism fuelled by religious, political, ethnic or sectarian conflict.'' ''The challenge for us now is to find creative inspiration from Gandhian ways to evolve a satyagraha appropriate to our times,'' Ms Gandhi said in her inaugural address at the two-day international conference being held as part of the 'satyagraha' centenary celebrations.

The conference, organised by the Congress at Vigyan Bhavan here, is being attended by global leaders, including Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, his counterpart from Slovenia, Janez Drnovsek, and Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramagoolam. The other dignitaries include Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Pointing out that the end of the Cold War had not seen a pandemic of peace as it was hoped, Ms Gandhi said large-scale violence continued to break out across the world, targeting innocent men, women and children.

''Millions have been killed and displaced from their homes...In too many parts of the globe, societies are in discord, nations are at war, human security is at risk,'' she said.

In a keen observation, Ms Gandhi said that ''in many cases, violence is the cry of the oppressed and the exploited. It is a sad reality that in many instances violence has to be resorted to in order to be heard.'' In the same breath, she said that while the underlying causes of conflict had to be understood, ''it does humanity no good to rationalise, let alone romanticise, violence in any way. It provides no lasting solutions. It leads to untold suffering and atrocities.'' At the same time, violence was not an answer to violence as ''an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind,'' Ms Gandhi said, quoting Mahatma Gandhi.

In view of all these complexities, it was only natural to question, ''is the Gandhian way feasible at all today? Can it prevail against terrorism and extremism?'', she said.

''It would, I suggest, be a grave error to write off the Gandhian approach as irrelevant to our age,'' Ms Gandhi said. Pointing out that there were individuals and groups who were trying to adapt and adopt satyagraha to deal with changing circumstances and situations, Ms Gandhi called for evolving a satyagraha appropriate to our times.

In her 20-minute address, heard with rapt attention by the galaxy of leaders who frequently thumped their desks in approval, she dwelt at length on all the four themes of the conference -- a non-violent approach to conflict resolution and peace-building; the Gandhian philosophy for poverty eradication, education and people's empowerment; dialogue among peoples and cultures; and towards a nuclear weapons-free and non-violent world order.

Acknowledging that globalisation had both positive and negative effects, she said an all-inclusive economic growth was no longer the ''greatest good of the greatest number. It is actually sarvodaya or the rise of all.'' It was also necessary to ensure that meeting the material wants and aspirations of various sections did not threaten ecological security and planetary survival, she said.

Regretting that nuclear weapons, despite the Hiroshima tragedy, had become even more of a terrifying reality and the very currency of power, Ms Gandhi said India had nuclear weapons because of strategic compulsions and the failure of the global powers to abolish such weapons.

But India's commitment to comprehensive, universal nuclear disarmament remained ''our profound conviction which we intend to carry forward.'' Editors: Pl pick up suitably from earlier series.

UNI