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Why Does Nobel Peace Prize Go to War Criminals Rather Than Mahatma Gandhi?

© AP Photo / Manish Swarupthe statue of Mahatma Gandhi
the statue of Mahatma Gandhi - Sputnik India, 1920, 04.10.2023
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The Nobel Prize was supposed to be awarded to the worthiest person; however, the “worthiest” are often only considered so according to the West’s convenience.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi across the globe, a key figure in India's struggle for independence from British rule, has never won a Nobel Peace Prize, despite being nominated five times.
In 2006, the former director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, said that the “greatest omission in the prize’s history was never awarding the peace prize to the Indian political activist Mahatma Gandhi”.

“Euro-centric viewpoint and its failure to appreciate the struggle for freedom in colonies kept Gandhi from receiving the award”, Lundestad said.

Nobel Prize: Global Award or Western Tool?

The Nobel Prize, an award that was established in 1901 to recognize outstanding achievement in certain fields, years later sparked many controversies to encourage political action rather than reward accomplishment.
In 2009, Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize just nine months into his first term, for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".
Soon after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Obama bombed seven countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, and Syria) in six years with an average of 34 bombs per day, including bombing a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan in October 2015.

Interestingly, the cannon which bombed the hospital and killed a dozen people, including three children, was provided by Bofors, a company once owned by Alfred Nobel (founder of the peace prize).

Lundestad also seemed to regret the decision to award Obama, writing in his autobiography that the committee thought the prize would strengthen the president, but that it didn’t have this effect.

“Even many of Obama’s supporters believed that the prize was a mistake”, he said, according to media reports. “In that sense the committee didn’t achieve what it had hoped for”.

The criticism came as Obama in 2016 alone dropped 26,172 bombs in seven countries. From torture and drone strikes to regime change, Obama’s troubling legal legacy mirrors that of most modern US presidents.
There were 10 times more air strikes in the covert wars during President Barack Obama’s presidency if compared with his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Nobel Prize and Its Controversial Recipients

“Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether the Nobel committee can do without Gandhi, is the question”, said Lundestad.

However, Obama is not the first controversial figure on the Nobel laureate list.
In 2012, the European Union got the Noble peace Prize “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”, it seems the panelist forgot its colonialist history.
Not just that, but the EU is one of the biggest weapons producers in the world.
In 2007, former US Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) won the Peace Prize for creating a documentary to popularize environmentalist views.
But, again, the award had nothing to do with the establishment or seeking of peace. The award was merely seen as an attempt to promote a viewpoint unconnected to peace.

Why Has Gandhi Never Won a Peace Prize?

Many reports and members of the committee have at times said that despite Gandhi’s noteworthy efforts in promoting peace and non-violence, Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, a subject that has generated considerable discussion and conjecture over time.
Reports also said that as Gandhi was not associated with any organization, and he hadn't designated a recipient for the prize money in his will, the Nobel Foundation's regulations did not find him befitting.
Mahatma Gandhi - Sputnik India, 1920, 06.09.2023
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