Panchayat would bring world peace

Panchayat embodies five principles of good behaviour as laid down in the Sanskirt text.

The principles are concerned with personal conduct and behaviour and prohibit the taking of life and indulgence of the senses.

The first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, used the term panchayat to include the five principles of: mutual respect, non-aggression, non-interference of each other’s internal affairs, territorial integrity, peaceful co-existence.

In 1954, India and China accepted the principles.

Marshal Josip Tito of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and Russia also subscribed to the principles.

At the Bandung Conference of 1955, Asian and African countries endorsed the principles.

At the Geneva Conference more than 50 years ago, the fate of Indo-China was a great victory for panchayat.

Nehru’s tour of Russia, Europe and America furthered panchayat.

Russia gave up her claim to spread communism to other countries.

If panchayat were accepted in the world, then war would be a thing of the past.

AHAMAD KHAYYAM Curepe