We all find social media very attractive, because we can interact with a group of like minded individuals and share and voice our opinions about almost everything under the sun. This concept was actually conceived long ago by Pandit Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru who formed an alliance of nations to bring together like-minded intentions and leverage many good intentions towards a better cause for the future.
Formation of Non-Alignment Movement (NAM)
Non-Alignment movement is the full form of NAM. After the Second World War, the world became divided into two blocs, the west bloc and the east bloc. The west bloc was dominated by the United States and the east bloc by the USSR. We can actually relate this situation to our house politics.
In a large family, if there is a dispute happening and two people within the house try to think separately like two different mindsets, the members of the house get confused. They get confused as to which person they should support.
Let’s assume some of them join the first person, some others join the second person and the left overs are not sure where exactly to join and whom to support. The third group here may be different in its thinking, they may not favor either group and they may wish to sustain with their own individuality.
This is exactly what happened with nations of the world. When every other nation was seeking to join either the west bloc or the east bloc, there were some sovereign nations that did not want to join either of them. The nations of Africa and Asia were those nations that didn’t favor either of the blocs.
India, which had just recently gained independence then, thought of its own liberation, but outside of these 2 blocs and hence did not support either of them. This is how Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru conceived the idea of a third world which came to be known as the NAM.
Underlying concepts of NAM
Non-Alignment movement was formed in 1961 at Belgrade and as on today, has more than 120 member nations to its credit. It was a great contribution from Jawaharlal Nehru who also formulated the 5 grounding principles of NAM to uphold its strategies. The 5 important principles on which NAM stands are laid down as the Panchasheel principles or the 5 basic principles that act as the essence of NAM. They are:
- Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
- Mutual Non aggression.
- Non interference in each other’s domestic affairs.
- Equality and added mutual benefit.
- Harmony and peaceful co-existence.
When the world got divided into the west and the east bloc’s, the world came under the pressure of a cold war that was slowly creeping in then. It was only in the early 1990’s that the formal declaration to end the cold war was announced. As an impetus to this declaration, the 1992 Jakarta summit holds a very prominent place in history of the world.
The colonial forces that were imposed by these east and west blocs were thus formally destroyed and the third world also stood competitive enough and powerful amongst these two blocs. The third world countries fight the principles of democracy, equality, poverty, raise their voices against exploitation and above all, place a lot of value on humanity as the core necessity of existence.
Nuclear weapons that have the power to destroy the whole world in a matter of few seconds are also under the radar of NAM countries. It is like a treaty and a mutual agreement between like minded nations, called the third world countries that oppose the surging power of nuclear energy for deadly and inhumane purposes.
India again sought a place in the UN charter at that point of time and was totally into upholding the sanctity of peaceful and harmonious co-existence, both with its immediate neighbours and the external world alike. Hence, India was upright in supporting the non alignment movement and has provided immense contribution right from its inception.
Relevance of NAM in today’s world
Let’s ponder upon the five principles that act as the foundation stone of NAM. Let’s go one by one and understand the relevance of these points and NAM in totality, in today’s world.
We are very well aware about invasions from neighbouring kingdoms that happened on our country in its history. Our country, before independence was not only invaded by external crusaders, but even within the country there was no unity among the kings of various kingdoms.
So, internal non-existence of unity created an easy pathway for external looters to take good advantage. This point has been very well explained in the NAM sovereign that tells member countries to respect every country’s territorial limits. Every country is bounded by a definite boundary that defines its territorial existence. It demarcates its presence from its neighbourhood.
Respecting this demarcation, allowing the country to remain a sovereign nation within its territorial boundaries not only helps bring in a sense of integrity among countries, but also achieves mutual respect for each other.
When there are ‘n’ numbers of heads representing ‘n’ number of nations under the NAM umbrella, each nation goes back and refers to its country’s cultural and social thinking. In short, every nation represents its own nation’s underlying socio-cultural thinking. This definitely causes dis-agreements between member nations.
On a formal note, there are bound to raise disagreements in policy making, mutual business decisions and other high level agreements. Disagreements do not mean nations have to start oppression and create aggression with each other and their neighbours. The NAM upholds peacefully sorting out differences and gives amicable space for open thinking, that which brings in welfare for the larger population.
Every nation has its own unique socio-economic set up and the fabrication can be well understood only by its respective leaders and representatives. The NAM as a rule of thumb, avoids nations from unnecessarily poking their noses into every other nation’s internal affairs. It instead places importance and states that every nation should concentrate in its own nation building activity and provide the least interference with external matters, until unless asked for.
When all the member nations of NAM do business with equality and like mindedness, every other member nation is going to benefit from their policies and shall result in higher developmental indexes of individual nations.
In today’s scenario when every nation fights with every other nation for its survival, these principles stated in the NAM document serve as guidelines for harmonious and peaceful co-existence. Nations wait to go for war with each other. This only hinders the progress and development of the nation and brings down its integrity on moral grounds.
Hence, considering all these factors NAM is very much relevant in today’s world. It is like the backbone of a country that guides and shows way to nations to help them achieve greater results in their production, to provide basic facilities to its citizens, to make food available to every person, to make medical care accessible to everyone.
NAM also concentrates its energies on the rapidly changing environments and aims to restore the lost ecological balance in the world. Thousands of issues that the world is facing can find solutions and learn the mutually respectable way of living through NAM.
Conclusion
Every big or small nation needs a backbone for its very existence. The basic principles that underlie in its core help them achieve rapid growth and development. In that context, NAM allows nations to whole heartedly adhere to its principles. They stand the test of time; they can very well be followed today, tomorrow and for the future generations to come.
Issues of today may be different from the past and may change in the future too. But the very essence of these issues continues to stem from the past and hence find every relevance for its existence in the form of NAM.