Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “To Be Prepared For War is one of The Most Effective Means of Preserving Peace” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

To Be Prepared For War is one of The Most Effective Means of Preserving Peace

War to root out war is the cry of the pacifists today. It is undoubtedly paradoxical to say that peace can be established by war. But there are people of utmost importance in the world who believe in this. General McArthur was one of those modern heroes who felt inspired to wage war to root out war. Churchill was another man who thought in the same strain. Until recently the attitude of Russia also was very much like this. But since the days of Khrushchev, the Russian attitude has considerably toned down. At any rate, the idea of war-preparedness has taken possession of the minds of the nations of the world and at the present moment there is a mad race and mighty scramble going on for the building up of armaments. But the idea is not new.

A study of the earliest literature of the world shows us that mankind has always felt the necessity of maintaining preparedness against evil forces of the world. The idea was present in the primitive time and was the earliest incentive to man for making of weapons, for defense and offence against the animals and against the savages. With the passage of time, the sense of preparedness resulting from the instinct of self-preservation took a moral, religious and spiritual form. It was enjoined by religion that a vigilant preparedness must always be maintained against the temptations of flesh. It was preparedness against the Adam in man upon whom religion had proclaimed an all out war. Thus, man’s preparedness for war was against the moral evil in him. Through the ages the idea became so consolidated that it was considered heroic to wage ceaseless war against sin and moral evil within and without. In Indian philosophy, wars were considered to be the enemy of man. It was man’s religious duty to wage relentless war against the domination of the mind and the senses. Rama and Krishna were the types of such heroes exalted and glorified in ancient Indian epic poetry. In the Vedic and the epic ages the art of war had reached such perfection that it had become the main subject of education. It was regarded as the bulwark of civilization. With the social and political decline of the Hindus after the Mahabharata, the art of war became decadent, but the idea of war preparedness against the forces of evil persistently survived. The history of Chittore and of the Rajputs as a whole is fully illustrative of the idea. It exists even today in the minds of the people but it flared up in Rana Pratap, in Shivaji, in Guru Gobind Singh and among the Sikhs generally and the revolutionary party in India that sought to wrest freedom from the Britishers by force. Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh and other young martyrs and youthful patriots of India were the votaries of the idea of war-preparedness.

In the West the same was the case. The local people always kept themselves ready to face the invaders. The militant civilization of Rome was always vigilant against foreign powers. When Christianity came into the field, it insisted upon the people always to be waging a war against the mechanizations of Satan. Earlier, Socrates and Plato had taught young men to wrestle with their passions. Socrates once told about himself that he was a man full of most evil tendencies, but by waging a constant war against them and remaining ever prepared to face any challenges of evil, he managed to keep himself pure and noble. Philosophy was his greatest armour. As religion gave place to nationalism, the idea was transformed into a political idea. If the nations and kings are to live in peace, they must be very strong and always ready to fight as was the with England right from the times of Queen Elizabeth to 1945. The principle of the balance of power was only an extended application of the idea of war preparedness. When George Washington uttered these words, he meant that national military strength is the bulwark of the liberties of the nation, the surest guarantee of peace. His reason was that politics even before the publication of Machiavelli’s, The Prince had emphatically been so since it was a matter of physical strength. Might is right or the Darwinian principle of natural selection, through a hard universal struggle for existence, is the rule with the nations. The stronger would survive. Napoleon also believed in the same principle. In fact, every successful general believes in the same principle. Nobody will dare threaten a nation if it is not safe to touch her as a mastiff. It must not be forgotten that Washington emphasized that war-preparedness is one of the most effective means of preserving peace. He does not say that it is the only effective means. People who had blindly advocated war in the interest of peace have ignored this important aspect. Washington believed that there are several effective means of preserving peace, though war-preparedness is the easiest, most direct, popular and rightly intelligible and convincing. In our times Bertrand Russell has definitely made out a case on behalf of scientific war-preparedness of the highest order for the preservation of civilization. History perhaps is not yet in a position to endorse this view because of the world is not sufficiently old to enable history and historian to reach some conclusion. With the opening of the atomic age, science has just started on its youthful phase and unless some decisive event takes place, it will not be possible to make any conclusive statement. The two world wars, however, support the view. Peace could not be preserved because as against Germany, the other nations were the least prepared for war. In fact, surprise and swiftness have entered into the technique of war, necessitating vigilance and constant war-preparedness as the essential elements of preserving peace.

Mahatma Gandhi is, however, opposed to the idea of war. Like Wordsworth and the Buddha, he also believes that evil can never be the foundation of good. The edifice of good is always built upon the positive foundations of love and sympathy. Hence, it is a perverted logic to think that violence can root out violence or war can eradicate war. War will only engender war and violence will only embitter the springs of humanity. According to Mahatma Gandhi, the most effective means of preserving peace is the will to remain peaceful and loving in spite of the gravest provocations that can be imagined by man. There may be other means as well such as cultural, social, scientific and diplomatic. The perfect development of any of these, or the harmony of all of these, may lead to the preservation of peace. Today the peace of the world is threatened. But America thinks that since the World War II came to an end, that post-war peace has been preserved and will continue to be preserved with the help of Atomic Bomb, which is a tangible preparedness for war. But Professor Joan and others would not be inclined to accept this view. On the contrary, the preparedness has caused a wide suspicion and a great race for armaments. When the volcano erupts, it will means the end of humanity. Their view is, therefore, that, according to the Gandhian idea, all violence in thought, word and acting should be eradicated. The whole world should be treated as a single unit brought together by scientific inventions, economic necessity and political exigencies. There must be federation, not only of world States but of world economies, and all world political ideologies. This positive move towards peace coupled with the universal will to preserve peace can only prove most effective in preserving peace and not in any national preparedness for war.

 Washington’s is an innocent adage. It is a piece of old wisdom. Since his days the world has changed tremendously. Hence, though it is true relatively to say, that to be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace, yet ultimately and absolutely peace is the result of the will to peace and love.