Not surprisingly, the grandson of the Mahatma Gandhi has spent a lot of time over the last year reflecting on terrorism, war and peace. One of the things that has puzzled Rajmohan Gandhi is the "apparent absence of Abraham Lincoln from the 9/11 discourse."
While Gandhi, a visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, noted the "stirring aptness" of the recitation of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at the "Ground Zero" commemoration in New York, he wondered why so few Americans have turned to Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, which, to Gandhi, has considerable relevance to these times.
Thus, during a Sept. 11 memorial event at Illinois, at which he was the keynote speaker, Gandhi recited several lines from that address, including the final sentence, in which Lincoln talked about the need for healing -- " 'To bind up the nation's wounds' was his phrase. And in the very last words of that address he spoke of the need 'to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.'
"Perhaps we should have the courage, with Lincoln, to pray for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, with the involvement, perhaps, of ourselves and all nations."
Gandhi, who is teaching a course on the governments and politics of South Asia, said that he remains "unconvinced that almost all modern violence and terrorism, and especially that in which Muslims seem to be involved, can be traced back to some Koranic verses removed from their context."
Americans, he suggested, might study how different peoples "have responded to opportunities or calls for targeting 'the Other.' Why Cambodia's Buddhists could not do more to check the killing fields of the 1970s may be a fair if difficult and complex question, as may be the role of the Christians of Rwanda in the 1990s. Likewise, what Muslims and Hindus need to do in today's South Asia, and Muslims, Jews and Christians in today's Middle East, may be legitimate and necessary questions."
He called for America's help in the rebuilding of Afghanistan -- "a reconstruction of homes, schools and roads, a healing of traumatized Afghans, a reconciliation among Afghanistan's divided ethnicities and a restoration of trust and friendship between Afghans and Americans."
What gives Gandhi "fresh hope" that victims of violence, terrorism and "might-is-right" all over the world will be aided is the confirmation that "yes, Americans have hearts and minds that will respond to suffering anywhere."
"For out of humankind's varied stock, America privileges no single blood, no single soil, no single faith. America is different from any other nation: America assembles the world. America was more than a new nation; it was the new world, and was rightly and prophetically so called.
"And yet, perhaps, these coming months and years may be one of those periods in history when a great country's commitment to its great calling is tested."
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