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World Peace Through World Education

 

 

A 10,000-Mile Walk For Peace Begins

Edathil Prabhakar Menon’s


Long March To Promote Non-Violent

Development For Justice And Equality

Career Visions #12




An Interview By Michael Chacko Daniels

Editor & Publisher, New River Free Press International


Professor Edathil Prabhakar Menon has been a peace activist from the age of 16 when he took the vow of non-violence and became an ardent follower of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave.

In his twenties, responding to Bertrand Russell’s call from a British prison for world nuclear disarmament, E. P. Menon set out in June 1962 with his friend Satish Kumar on a monumental, three-year, 10,000-mile journey around the world for peace.

The two questions ⎯ ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’ ⎯ that provided a foundation for Prof. Menon’s long walk as a young man on his quest for peace [In the E. P. Menon Reader below, click on the URL for Aravind Kesavan’s report in The Hindu, Feb. 10, 2003] have been at the heart of Prof. Menon’s journey since then.
 
From 1968 to 1991, Prof. Menon was part of a unique World Education project called Friends World College, initiated by a group of 20-25 educationists and 'world citizens' from different countries, encouraged and supported by New York-based Quakers. Starting as a faculty member, he later became its director for South Asia.

Joseph Kaval, who was featured in the Career Visions #6, and who nominated Prof. Menon for the current interview, says, “Prof. Menon is a true Gandhian, in letter and spirit. He practices what he preaches. He finds more plus points in others and he says less minus points about others. One can count on him.”
 
Prof. Menon, who leads the India Development Foundation today, is well-known for his outspoken views not only against nuclear arms but also neo-colonialism, multi-national corporations capturing village markets, water privatization, political and bureaucratic corruption, and discrimination and oppression of any type. He's a regular visitor to the United States, continuing his world peace through world education lecturing mission.

Joseph Kaval reports that Prof. Menon is single, lives in a single room provided by Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi, Bangalore, and travels often by bus.

Objectives of India Development Fund

• To identify and honor sincerely dedicated and socially committed individuals who have done meritorious work in their respective fields in the overall interest of the country with humanistic attitudes and broader visions.
• To identify and help the poor, deserving, oppressed and suppressed women through providing them with simple productive skills and socio-economic political awareness.
• To provide encouragement to instill courage and spirit of adventure, to discover latent talents among the youth, and to organize them periodically for undertaking collective responsibility and challenges of constructive nation building activities for a better India in the 21st century.

India Development Foundation
D-1, III Floor, Gem Wellington, Opp NAL Airport Road
Bangalore – 560 017 • India

Edathil Prabhakar Menon's Data Bank

High School
CNN High School
Cherpu, Kerala, India


College
Central Board of Secondary Education
New Delhi


Teacher that influenced E. P. Menon the most
Mr M. S. Namboodiri
Mr Sekhara Warrier


Books that influenced E. P. Menon
The Story Of My Experiments With Truth > M. K. Gandhi
The Discovery Of India > Jawaharlal Nehru
What Then Must We Do? > Leo Tolstoy
Kingdom Of God Is Within You > Leo Tolstoy
War And Peace > Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina > Leo Tolstoy
Twenty Three Tales > Leo Tolstoy
The Capital > Karl Marx
Has Man A Future > Bertrand Russell
David Copperfield > Charles Dickens
The Red Book > Mao Tse Tung
Crime And Punishment > Dostoevsky
Brothers Karamasov > Dostoevsky
Les Miserables > Victor Hugo
Walden > Henry David Thoreau
The Old Man And The Sea > Hemingway
Siddhartha > Herman Hesse
Let History Absolve Me > Fidel Castro
The Motorcycle Diary > Che Guevara
The Bunch of Bananas > Changampuzha
The Fallen Flower > Kumaran Asan
Umakeralam > U. P. Iyer

Favorite Philosopher
Bertrand Russell

Favorite Singer
Joan Baez, USA
Lata Mangeshkar, India
Muhammed Rafi, India

Favorite Quotation
"Think of your humanity, forget the rest."
--Bertrand Russell

E. P. Menon's Published Works
Footprints On Friendly Roads
The story of Mr Menon's Peace March around the world
on foot from Delhi to Moscow, Paris, London, Washington,
and Hiroshima, from 1962 to 1965.
Published by Minerva Press, Delhi & London
Silent Storms
A novel on youth and social activities in India.
Out of stock.
Seven Hours To Dawn
A novel on women's problems in India.
Out of stock.
Rasila's Resolution
A political novel on the Indian situation in the early 1990s.
Available from the author.

Q________________________

New River Free Press International

Tell us about yourself.

What makes you who you are?
_________________________

EPM From early boyhood, I had been very sensitive to human sufferings.

Then, I got influenced by the saying of Dr. Albert Schweitzer: "Life is to give, not to take." When I started reading Gandhi and the story of Indian freedom movement, I started thinking that I should involve myself in social revolutionary activities.

After seeing and experiencing the world, I have become a WORLD CITIZEN.

Then, I got fully involved in the promotion of World Education, under the banner: 'World Peace Through World Education."

Therefore, now I feel all human problems are my problems and I must play a positive role wherever I can.

Q________________________

New River Free Press International

What was your vision of

society that brought you to

the work you do?
_________________________


EPM My vision of human society was without any artificial borders created by humans which divided human life.

This can be possible when full economic justice and social equality will be available to all human beings on Earth.

Organized religions and capitalistic systems of economic order are the greatest stumbling blocks towards that destination.

Q________________________

New River Free Press International

What do you think we

should remember as we remake

the world through the work we do?
_________________________

EPM We should really remember that all human beings are equal and behave accordingly with everyone, wherever it may be.

Q________________________

New River Free Press International

Has your vision changed

as you have participated

in the remaking of the world?
_________________________

EPM No. But I do find more and more stumbling blocks. In a way they are providing more courage to struggle, and conviction to carry on a global basis.

Q________________________

New River Free Press International

What challenges do you

perceive in achieving your

vision of society?
_________________________

EPM In the present context, it is the unbridled expansion of corporate capitalism everywhere, as well as the inexcusable strengthening of militarism all over the world.

Q________________________

New River Free Press International

What needs to be done

to overcome these challenges?
_________________________

EPM Within nations, there must be social, cultural, and economic revolutions based on humanistic values.

Globally, the first step should be attainment of nuclear disarmament.

Eventually, a world government should be established.


Q________________________

New River Free Press International

What personal and public lessons

have you learned from the

devastation caused by the

Asian Tsunami and the

South Asian Earthquake?
_________________________

EPM Such natural calamities are beyond human control.

But, since science and technology has helped us to forecast certain events, more precautions and safety measures could be organized.

More than anything else, our sense of social responsibility helps us to do whatever possible at a given time and situation.

I have learnt to be humble, alert , responsible, and responsive to human sufferings and conditions everywhere.

E. P. Menon Reader

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug14/metro3.asp

By Tina Garg in Deccan Herald, Thursday, August 14, 2003

Towards the India of their dreams

Forty years ago two friends decided to do something for those less privileged than themselves. They set up the India Development Foundation to empower women in Bangalore’s slums

One starlit night in 1994, two friends C N Keshavan and E P Menon, met after a gap of 40 years. . . .
~ ~ ~

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/02/10/stories/2003021001080200.htm

By Aravind Kesavan in The Hindu, Monday, Feb 10, 2003

Long walk for nuclear disarmament

Bertrand Russell, that master of mathematics and English language, gave a call for total disarmament from his prison cell. Inspired by his writing, E.P. Menon, disciple of Vinoba Bhave, set out on a mission. . . .

~ ~ ~

http://www.radford.edu/~gmartin/Prov%20World%20Parliament.htm

From Glen T. Martin’s Website

Here I am with my good friend E.P. Menon from Bangalore, India. In 1962 and 1963 Menon walked (literally) from South India to Moscow, to Paris, to London (crossed the Atlantic by ship to New York), to Washington, DC, to San Francisco (crossed to Tokyo), to Hiroshima. He did this to protest the madness of nuclear weapons. Today, he is Executive Trustee of India Development Foundation in Bangalore. . . .

~ ~ ~

http://www.organiser.org/17sep2000/centre.html
New Delhi, September 17, 2000

Give swadeshi and swavalamban a chance

By E.P. Menon

When India became free the entire population was united with a single purpose in mind. To re-build the nation where everyone would have an equal opportunity to live as human beings and collectively commit for the creation of a better society. . . .


~ ~ ~
 

http://www.positiveatheism.org/india/s1990a12.htm


Atheism -- A Creative Challenge

By E. P. Menon

When the father of Indian freedom struggle bluntly told Prof. Gora, the greatest living atheist of India then: "I can neither say my theism is right nor your atheism is wrong. We are seekers after truth. We change whenever we find ourselves in the wrong.... There is no harm as long as you are not fanatical. Whether you are in the right or I am in the right results will prove. Then I may go your way or you may come my way; or both of us may go a third way. So go ahead with your work I will help you, though your method is against mine". . . .


~ ~ ~

http://www.thamarahua.com/php/articlemore.php?artid=297

Title: E. P. Menon –
Two young Indians make a stand for world peace

If you truly believe something to be right, then be bold and have the courage to stand up and be counted for those beliefs!

These are the strong sentiments of Professor E. P. Menon . . .

~ ~ ~

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/dec/20amb.htm

A journey for peace and environment

A correspondent in Mumbai | December 20, 2003 16:12

. . . "My friend, E P Menon, and I decided to walk for peace to Moscow, Paris, London, and Washington DC [the capitals of the then four nuclear powers]." . . .
 

Reader's Comment: E-Mail, March 3, 2006

HI, Michael
 
I found it very interesting to read the details of the interview you did with Professor E. P. Menon of Bangalore.

You have a charismatic way of putting probing personal questions to those whom you choose to interview, without invoking their resentment, or creating any embarrassment in them, a quality lacking in many professional interviewers.. 
 
Professor E.P. Menon is a marvelous individual, and the monumental world-cross-walk he did to enunciate the non-violent philosophy he learned from Gandhiji, Vinoba Bhave, and their disciples  has evoked within me some memorable thoughts of the freedom movement I myself participated and experienced during my undergraduate studies at the University College, Trivandrum, way back in the 1941-42 period. 
 
Professor Menon's published works stand out as a profound testimony to his literary prowess and skill as a writer. His non-violent philosophy, acquired through undergoing personal privations and sacrifices, and his willingness to share it with his readers is especially commendable.  His works can be easily understood by any literate man-on the-street. While some may comment that the work of the authors he chose to read and digest are controversial, I am glad that Professor Menon's literary work proves that he has not accepted their ideas and philosophies carte-blanche. Indians of any religious persuasion should be proud of a person like Professor Menon.  

Sam
 
 

About the Editor: San Franciscan Michael Chacko Daniels, formerly a community worker and clown, and now a re-emerging writer and editor, grew up in Bombay. Books: Writers Workshop, Kolkata: Split in Two (1971, 2004), Anything Out of Place Is Dirt (1971, 2004), and That Damn Romantic Fool (1972, 2005). Read all about his Indian and American journey at http://indiawritingstation.com/community-service-calls/. He helped found the Jobs for Homeless Consortium in 1988 and was its executive director from 1995 till its closing in 2004.

All views expressed in the interview are those of the interviewee
and not those of the editor or this website.

This Interview Is Also Published On
 
 

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Posted on Monday, February 27, 2006 at 02:33PM by Registered CommenterMichael Chacko Daniels | CommentsPost a Comment

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