Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Introduction
- 1 Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Brief Overview
- 2 The International Law Concerning Weapons of Mass Destruction
- PART ONE THE ORIGINAL DEBATE
- PART TWO EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION
- 11 Buddhist Perspectives on Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 12 Buddhism and Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Oxymoron?
- 13 Confucianism and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 14 “Heaven's Mandate” and the Concept of War in Early Confucianism
- 15 Hinduism and the Ethics of Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 16 Hinduism and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Pacifist, Prudential, and Political
- 17 Islamic Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Argument for Nonproliferation
- 18 “Do Not Violate the Limit”: Three Issues in Islamic Thinking on Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 19 Judaism, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 20 Between the Bible and the Holocaust: Three Sources for Jewish Perspectives on Mass Destruction
- PART THREE CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
- Contributors
- Index
15 - Hinduism and the Ethics of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Introduction
- 1 Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Brief Overview
- 2 The International Law Concerning Weapons of Mass Destruction
- PART ONE THE ORIGINAL DEBATE
- PART TWO EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION
- 11 Buddhist Perspectives on Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 12 Buddhism and Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Oxymoron?
- 13 Confucianism and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 14 “Heaven's Mandate” and the Concept of War in Early Confucianism
- 15 Hinduism and the Ethics of Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 16 Hinduism and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Pacifist, Prudential, and Political
- 17 Islamic Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Argument for Nonproliferation
- 18 “Do Not Violate the Limit”: Three Issues in Islamic Thinking on Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 19 Judaism, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 20 Between the Bible and the Holocaust: Three Sources for Jewish Perspectives on Mass Destruction
- PART THREE CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
In the Western imagination, Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) has been the icon of nonviolence (ahimsa) and pacifism. Because Gandhi was Hindu, people assumed that Hinduism and modern India (which is about 80 percent Hindu) were also nonviolent and pacifist. This idea was reinforced by India's policy of nonalignment under Jawaharlal Nehru and by a general image of Hinduism as the religion of peace (santi) and tolerance (tulyatva) promoted by philosopher-statesmen such as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975). This stereotype of Hindu nonviolence was shattered in May 1998 when India detonated five nuclear bombs. An act that shocked the rest of the world, it was far from shocking to Indians themselves – at least those who know Indian history.
When the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico, Robert Oppenheimer quoted from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Gandhi said, “Unless now the world adopts non-violence, it will spell certain suicide for mankind.” Several months later, he said to an interviewer: “Oh, on that point you can proclaim to the whole world without hesitation that I am beyond repair. I regard the employment of the atom bomb for the wholesale destruction of men, women and children as the most diabolical use of science.” He was then asked, “What is the antidote? Has it antiquated non-violence?” and answered, “No. It is the only thing the atom bomb cannot destroy.
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- Ethics and Weapons of Mass DestructionReligious and Secular Perspectives, pp. 277 - 307Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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