A colloquium was held at the University of Chicago, U.S.A, on Nuclear Policy, Culture and History on March 13 and 14, 1987, of which the third session was devoted to the theme, "An Ethics for Nuclear Policy: The Bhagavad Gita, or Gandhian Nonviolence, or the Middle Way?" The colloquium was co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies, the Committee on Public Policy Studies, the Committee on International Relations, and the Center for Psychosocial Studies (Chicago). It drew participants from diverse disciplines - Hi-story, Language, Literature, Journalism, Law, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Theology and Strategic Planning. One naturally approaches such a colloquium with great expectation, and I believe that the Indian public will be glad to have its proceedings. Since I have, in this book, confined myself to the Gita, I have reproduced, with due permission, the report in its entirety of Session III, pertaining to the Gita.
As noted by Professor Milton Singer, 'the tone and substance' of the discussions was determined largely by Freeman Dyson's book Weapons and Hope. In the first chapter of this book Professor Dyson says
Perhaps the best answer to the question of active defence and all the other ethical questions of nuclear policy is to be found, not in the professional literature of twentieth-century stratagists, but in an Indian poem written two thousand years earlier, the Bhagavad Gita:
You have the right to work, but for work's sake only.
You have no rights to the fruits of work Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working.
This was the answer of the god Krishna to the warrior Arjuna who asked whether it was right to engage in war. The same answer can be given to the modern warrior who asks whether it is right to try to defend a country against nuclear weapons. You have the right to defend, but you have no right to count the fruits of defense. You have the right to try to save lives, but you have no right to count the lives saved. This answer is not easy for Americans to digest. We are accustomed to making Indians think like Americans. It is more difficult to persuade Americans to think like Indians.
I said earlier (in the opening paragraph) that I have reproduced in this book the report, in its entirety, of the discussions in Session III of the Colloqumn. This occupies thirty pages in the report of the colloquium.
I have reproduced a lot more. (Details are given in my letter dated March 2, 1992, to Professor Ralph W. Nicholas, Dean & Director of the Center for International Studies, the University of Chicago: vide Appen-dix No. 1). The full extent of the quotations from the Report is fifty-nine pages (of the original report, published by the University of Chicago). The generosity of Professor Ralph Nicholas, and that of Professor Milton Singer, Editor of the Report, have been overwhelming and incredible, and speak for the universality of the scholar's spirit. Professor Ralph Nicholas, in his letter of March 13, 1992 (vide Appendix No. 2) wrote to me that the agreement of each of the participants in the discussion was being solicited. Subsequently he sent me a telegram dated May 29, 1992. (vide Appendix No. 3) as follows:
Authors permission granted to quote from report as specified in March 2 letter.
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