Nobel Prize panel regrets missing out on Gandhi

Stockholm: Mahatma Gandhi taught the world a new method of struggle and redefined diplomacy. But the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century was never selected for the Nobel Prize.

The denial of the prize to Gandhi invited worldwide controversy that is still being debated today.

Gandhi was nominated five times for the Nobel but the Norwegian Nobel committee believed that the champion of non-violence could not be awarded because he was “neither a real politician nor a humanitarian relief worker.”

But now, for the first time ever, the Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation in Sweden, Michael Sohlman, says that it was a mistake by the Norwegian Peace committee.

“We missed a great Laureate and that’s Gandhi. It’s a big regret,” he admits.

It is speculated that race played a major role. Laureates were exclusively selected from United States and Europe.

“I usually don’t comment on what the Nobel Committees or prize awarding institutions decide. But here, they themselves think he is the one missing,” says Sohlman.

At the Nobel Museum, curator Dr Anders Barany says the irony is that eminent personalities, who based their actions on the Mahatma's teachings, were awarded the Nobel in later years.

“Mahatma Gandhi is the one we miss the most at the Nobel museum. I think that’s a big empty space where we should have had Mahatma Gandhi. I think it was a mistake. I think they could have made up for that little difference,” says Barany.

But at the time Gandhi died, the rules stated that a candidate had to be alive till February 1 to be considered.

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, two days before the closing date for that year's Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

In that year, the Nobel Committee decided to give no peace award on the grounds that there was no suitable living candidate.

In fact, the Mahatma was nominated for the Nobel Prize five times but he never won it.

That year itself, the Committee received six letters of nomination for Gandhi.

While now many Gandhians feel Father of the Nation could have done without the Nobel Peace Prize, it now seems that the Nobel committee cannot do without Gandhi.

Source: www.ibnlive.com