Dr. Yayati Madan G. Gandhi(1940) is an outstanding educationist, litterateur and publicist who has been in the vanguard of many movements for sustainable environment, total disarmament, human rights and one-world mankind. A visiting fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge he has made an outstanding contribution in the field of teaching and research in political theory, third world studies and international politics.

A winner of Tagore Award in poetry in 1961, Dr. Gandhi is the Founder-President of the Poetry Society of India and authored  eleven volumes of poetry entitled Ashes and Embers, Kundalini, Luteous Serpent, Petals of Flame, Freak Stair, Meandering Maze, Ring of Silence, Shunyata in Trance, Haikus and Quatrains, Enchanting Flute, and The Imperiled Earth.  On his Poetry, one Ph.D. Thesis 'EWAFE' Motif in Madan G. Gandhi's Poetry' has  been awarded Doctorate. 

Edited by Dr. Yayati Madan G. Gandhi

First published in 2004
ISBN No. : 81-88871-00-1
Price : Rs. 200/-
Pages : 182/-
E-mail : southasianews@rediffmail.com


    The book makes a powerful plea for  Dialogue of Civilization as against Samuel Huntington's thesis concerning the Clash of Civilization.

    Dialogue  is best fitted to unravel the commonality of human concerns and endeavors and is the surest way to transform the myriad  discords into harmony of living -an art which each one of us can learn to contribute to the common wellbeing.  It brings out the most often forgotten truth that in life there are far more threads that unite than those that divide. No man or a civilization is an island but a current in the ocean of mankind. Bound by fraternal bonds all human beings are sharers in one common indivisible destiny.  Poverty, illiteracy, political violence, pollution, the danger of thermo-nuclear confrontation etc.  are some of the obvious  enemies of mankind.  These problems are not peculiar to any one particular civilization but transcending cultural and national frontiers they affect every one. 

    Today when mankind is confronted with a grim scenario involving  clashes of national self interest, religious fundamentalism rooted in dogma and ignorance, ethnic and racial prejudices, dialogue can be a well trusted means of laying the groundwork of a new world order in which the least developed and most disadvantaged among the peoples can have an effective voice.  Dialogue holds the prospect of converting confrontation to cooperation, depleting environment to sustainable environment, sectarian clashes to harmonic co-existence, fratricidal strife to fratricidal harmony.  Dialogue is promotive of civic culture, social capital, democratic freedoms, human rights and social justice.  It fosters  peaceful living among people belonging to different religions, belief systems, cultures, races and civilizations.  Dialogue holds fast to the human dimension and re-inforces the humane values of civilization.  It inculcates rational scientific temper and contributes to creativity, adventure of ideas, respect for dissent and diversity, values of democracy, humanism, peace, understanding, adjustment  and a sense of  human brotherhood.

    The book contains readings and excerpts from writings and speeches of notable thinkers, publicists and experts will, it is hoped, illumine  some of the gray areas of the contemporaneous debate and will  let us share mankind's common enduring concerns. The insights and  harmonizing threads running through various cultures may help convert the clash of civilizations into the dialogue among civilizations, a phrase coined by His Excellency Mr. Mohammed Khatami, The President of Islamic Republic of Iran.

    Thanks to the communication and information revolution, the world has shrunk into a global village.  A true knowledge of what the West and Asia  think on the crucial issues common to mankind will help resolve many tensions and discords which have their basis in prejudice and fear of each other born out of ignorance. It will give a fillip to improvement of political, economic and cultural relations between them.  In the Asian mirror Europe can see its own past with its philosophic and cultural moorings, which largely  are common and inseparable from those of Asia.

    If the West engages in a profound and sincere dialogue with the Orient it will find practical and efficacious solutions to many of its problems such as the crisis of family, man-nature relationships, the crisis in ethics and values with a direct bearing on scientific research.

    Asia is brimming with love for humanity, sense of tolerance, serenity and balance in human relations because of the continuous and profound  dialogue at a deeper level among the congeries of peoples of diverse races,  religions and cultures inhabiting this continent --Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis--who have been living in fraternal harmony since several centuries. The world-view of the ancient Hindu sages and seers embraced the whole world and considered it one family. To realize this goal in today's world a dialogue among civilization is the imperative  need of our times.