Why Was Gandhi Never Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Why Was Gandhi Never Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Mahatma Gandhi was nominated several times - 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948, but was never awarded the prize. Why?

The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee; when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi". However, the committee has never commented on the speculations as to why Gandhi was not awarded the prize, and until recently the sources which might shed some light on the matter were unavailable.

From nobelprize.org,

Up to 1960, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded almost exclusively to Europeans and Americans. In retrospect, the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee may seem too narrow. Gandhi was very different from earlier Laureates. He was no real politician or proponent of international law, not primarily a humanitarian relief worker and not an organiser of international peace congresses. He would have belonged to a new breed of Laureates.

There is no hint in the archives that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ever took into consideration the possibility of an adverse British reaction to an award to Gandhi. Thus it seems that the hypothesis that the Committee's omission of Gandhi was due to its members' not wanting to provoke British authorities, may be rejected.

In 1947 the conflict between India and Pakistan and Gandhi's prayer-meeting statement, which made people wonder whether he was about to abandon his consistent pacifism, seem to have been the primary reasons why he was not selected by the committee's majority. Unlike the situation today, there was no tradition for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to try to use the Peace Prize as a stimulus for peaceful settlement of regional conflicts.

During the last months of his life, Gandhi worked hard to end the violence between Hindus and Muslims which followed the partition of India. We know little about the Norwegian Nobel Committee's discussions on Gandhi's candidature in 1948 – other than the above quoted entry of November 18 in Gunnar Jahn's diary – but it seems clear that they seriously considered a posthumous award. When the committee, for formal reasons, ended up not making such an award, they decided to reserve the prize, and then, one year later, not to spend the prize money for 1948 at all. What many thought should have been Mahatma Gandhi's place on the list of Laureates was silently but respectfully left open.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions

Chandrayaan touched the MOON

India marked its presence on moon on Friday night, to become only the fourth nation to scale this historic milestone after a moon Impact Probe, with the national tri-colour painted, successfully landed on the lunar surface after being detached from the unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1.

Joining the US, the erstwhile Soviet Union and the European Union, the 35-kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP) hit the moon exactly at 8.31 PM, about 25 minutes after the probe descended from the satellite in what ISRO described as a "perfect operation".
Miniature Indian flags painted on four sides of the MIP signalled the country's symbolic entry into moon to coincide with the birth anniversary of the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, observed as Children's Day.

The spacecraft on Thursday(Nov 13th) reached its final orbital home, about 100 km over the moon surface after ISRO scientists successfully carried out the last critical orbit lowering operation

NOTE : The above picture is an imaginary view of my dream - To see my/our flag on MOON.

Happy Birthday To Jawaharlal Nehru(14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964)

He had been alive, Jawaharlal Nehru would have been 110 years and one month old at the turn of the century. It is 45 years since his moving away from the centrestage of Indian and world politics. With death and with the passage of time, great leaders undergo a process of demystification . Distances in terms of time and the elimination of the physical presence of these larger-than-life figures enable succeeding generations to a assess their lives more objectively, without being afflicted by their charisma and power, whatever the ingredients of that power might have been.

Serving as Congress President, Nehru raised the flag of independent India in New Delhi on 15 August 1947, and served as First Prime Minister. His daughter Indira and grandson Rajiv would both also serve as Prime Minister and President of the Indian National Congress, as would Rajiv's wife Sonia. His long tenure was instrumental in shaping the traditions and structures of independent India.

Numerous public institutions and memorials across India are dedicated to Nehru's memory. The Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi is among the most prestigious universities in India. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port near the city of Mumbai is a modern port and dock designed to handle a huge cargo and traffic load. Nehru's residence in Delhi is preserved as the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. The Nehru family homes at Anand Bhavan and Swaraj Bhavan are also preserved to commemorate Nehru and his family's legacy. In 1951, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee

Chandhrayaan-1 A grand success

It's a proud moment for the Indians and the scientific community after the Chandrayan 1 was successfully launched on October 22. India's first scientific mission to the moon that is unmanned, the Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft, took off from Sriharikota towards the moon.

ISRO technologists gathered at the Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC), the nerve-centre of Chandrayaan-1’s operations now, said “it was a feast to the eyes” to see Chandrayaan-1 go into a perfect lunar orbit of 7502 km by 504 km and that they could see on the plot-boards the deceleration of the spacecraft before it entered the lunar orbit.

India has one of the largest communication systems in the world with a satellite programme of 21 orbiters of which 11 are currently in service. Although Russia has helped in the space programmmes by providing manufacturing and design technology, the credit for the success of Chandrayaan-1 solely belongs to the scientists of India at the Indian Space Research Organization.

What could be Obama's effect on India

The Indian software industry is looking forward to work with US president-elect Barack Obama and his administration to spur innovation, foster economic growth and develop skilled workforce to create jobs in both countries for mutual benefit.

Hailing Obama's historic victory in Tuesday's elections, the Indian software industry body NASSCOM said it was important for India and the US to find ways to partner and boost economies of the two nations in the wake of the global economic meltdown.

"Specifically, we support expanding the H1B visa programme so that skilled workers can help companies lead the way on innovation and contribute additional jobs and economic growth in the US," Nasscom said in a statement in Bangalore Wednesday(6th Nov 2008).

And apart from IT,

Obama has picked Indian-American Sonal Shah, an eminent economist who heads Google's philanthropic arm, as one of the advisers to help him assemble his White House team.

Shah, 40, is part of an advisory board comprising individuals with significant private and public sector experience who will offer their expertise in their respective fields to Obama's transition team, according to US media reports.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that India-born Preeta Bansal, a Harvard-educated lawyer who was part of Obama's team of advisers during his election campaign, may be a potential candidate for the office of the Solicitor General, a post yet to be filled by a woman in US