Gandhi the missing Nobel laureate

I had often been struck by the hollowness of the Nobel peace awards, for awarding people like Henry Kissinger while excluding Mahatma Gandhi, whose very name is a symbol of the non-violent struggle for humanity, peace, harmony and justice. And ironically, Nobel Peace Prize winners like Dr Martin Luther King and The Dalai Lama have acknowledged Gandhi as a powerful source of their inspiration.

I stumbled today upon an article written in 1999 by Øyvind Tønnesson, "Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate". This is carried on the Nobel Prize website.

Read the article here.

My reaction on reading the article was - if such high standards were applied to find Mahatma Gandhi wanting, then similar standards appear to have been singularly lacking in other instances. There simply can be no rationalisation. Hence, sadly, the award is severely devalued and inconsequential. While Gandhi stands tall and walks alone, and continues to touch the hearts of people everywhere.