{"id":196913,"date":"2021-10-11T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=196913"},"modified":"2021-10-06T05:43:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T04:43:22","slug":"aspects-of-nonkilling-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/10\/aspects-of-nonkilling-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspects of Nonkilling Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEveryone has the right not to be killed and the responsibility not to kill others.\u201d <\/em>
\n— <\/em>Robert Muller (1923-2010), former UN Assistant Secretary General<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n

5 Oct 2021 –<\/em> It was Canadian philosopher Northrop Frye who once observed that we may not live in literature as much as we live in culture. Cultures get defined by institutions, structures and mores of people as well as through our thoughts, words, and actions. (Frye, 2007) Cultures may be geographic specific in contemporary post-colonial period, with the redrawing of boundaries and ensuing displacements they have been changing beyond recognition in a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Each scientific advance, technological breakthrough or political victory seems to foretell of a better day only to pale beneath the cycle of violence. Wars, murders, genocide – the killing goes on unabated. Yet there is hope. A way to comprehending changing Culture may be through Humanizing language and teaching, appreciative of life-affirming values and ethics providing space for creative imagination.<\/p>\n

Nonkilling with its global ethos focus sharply upon the prevention of taking of human life. The concept was first defined in 2002 by Glenn Durland Paige (1929 \u2013 2017)\u00a0 \u00a0in his seminal work, The Nonkilling Global Political Science<\/em>. (Paige, 2002, 2009). Paige\u2019s book showed that nonkilling is the precondition to peace and nonviolence; in fact, it permeates our Alpha to Omega. He was adamant that emergence of nonkilling societies would require discoveries and contributions of all scholarly disciplines and vocations globally, \u201cdrawing upon, advancing, and combining the Spiritual, Scientific, Skill, and Arts capabilities of humankind for change\u201d. The ripples of profound insights emanating from that book translated in over 30 languages have been immeasurable.(www.nonkilling.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In this article, six recent nonkilling literary works with a focus on saving humanity from killings are examined. The books, both fiction and non-fiction, point not only to the act of lethality \u00a0but also challenges posed by societal dehumanization, deprivation and declining values.<\/p>\n

The three examples each in the two categories are: Rifet Bahtijaragic\u2019s two novels, Chernov’s Toil and Peace <\/em>(2010) <\/em>and Blood in His Eyes <\/em>(2012), and Adrian de Hoog\u2019s Natalia’s Peace<\/em>. In the non-fiction category, included are three memoirs: Diary of a Kidnapped Colombian Governor: A journey toward Nonviolent Transformation<\/em> by Guillermo Gaviria Correa (English translation, 2010), Captivity<\/em> by James Loney (2011), and A Persistent Peace<\/em> by John Dear (2008).<\/p>\n

Fiction<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The narratives of the three novels rooted in the conflicts of past century provide us a glimpse into their protagonists\u2019 willingness to stand up risking their lives to assert human dignity and personal integrity undeterred by assaults of violence and injustice.<\/p>\n

Chernovs’ Toil and Peace<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Rifet Bahtijaragic\u2019s Chernovs\u2019 Toil and Peace <\/em>is a historical novel with a multitude of characters over generations covering a wide geographical canvas from Tbilisi, Georgia to present day Kamsack, Saskatchewan in Canada. It starts in the late 19th Century, focussed on the exodus of a small Doukhobor community in Central Europe fleeing from their persecution by the Russian Tsar and the Russian Orthodox Church of the time who want them to join the Tsar\u2019s army to fight an imperial war. Doukhobors chose to burn their guns than to be conscripted in Tsar’s army.<\/p>\n

The multi-generation narrative of Dr. Misha Chernov\u2019s family that begins with uprooting from their homeland in central Europe, journeying across the sea, and finding refuge in Canada, is about their struggle to protect their unique no-killing culture amidst a tumultuous life in their new land of adoption. Problems of retaining a Nonkilling identity in North America turns out to be the same as that which had forced their ancestors to leave Russia, to escape the ridicule of their beliefs.<\/p>\n

A Doukhobor is fittingly described in a meeting by Misha when interviewed by the British journalist Arthur: \u201cEveryone of them who is an honest person knows that our philosophy of life is humane…That all people are brothers and sisters, that we do not hate anybody, that a man has no right to kill another, or to exploit him in any way. That our understanding of the relationship with God is in the domain of each individual’s spirit, and that nobody has the right to make politics or profit out of it…\u201d<\/p>\n

The narrator in the novel is searching for genes of nonviolence and nonkilling in human spirit from ancient times till today. Understanding of his story tied to Prometheus sentenced to be chained on the Caucasus mountain is not mere symbolic,\u00a0 Caucasus is where the Doukhobors began their resistance to bear arms, and therefore expelled by Russian imperators in case they would set a bad example for the others.<\/p>\n

The nonkilling genes in human spirit as embodied in the Doukhobor way of living and thinking are interspersed throughout the story: \u201cThe philosophy which the Doukhobors embraced and made possible in practice had not been born in their movement. It had been like a river disappearing inside the earth in one place just to bubble forth again in some other place in the form of a new stream or river.\u201d Misha continues: \u201cAspects of that (Doukhobor\u2019) philosophy had for thousands of years crept through the crevices of civilization and survived all barbarities…\u201d<\/p>\n

The irony of the novel is not in having escaped a repressive war-fighting regime but coming into a new one where protecting sanctity of human life with similar commitment as burning of arms is equally ridiculed and has to be guarded with a zeal that sometimes make them feel as outsiders in their new land of adoption.<\/p>\n

Blood in His Eyes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bahtijaragic\u2019s second novel is set in the killing fields of Bosnia in the 1990s which is being ravaged by an ongoing civil war between Serbs and Muslims. A story of two brothers of mixed culture Yudja and Osman, and their complex disconnect is depicted over three generations. The story told through the memory lens by aged Yudja who has moved to Canada as a refugee. Yudja is awaiting his wife and daughter who are separated from him by the war. Instead he is surprised by his illegitimate son Fehrat, arriving on his doorstep asking Yudja to provide him a temporary shelter. Fehrat, also a refugee in waiting, is missing a hand and a foot, both hacked by a Serb during the conflict.<\/p>\n

The old Yudja and the young man know each other vaguely, they begin to talk and exchange stories of the atrocities they witnessed and experienced. Yudja\u2019s story of nonkilling is shaped by the events of the Second World War when we learn what he went through at the outbreak of the war followed by the Nazi occupation of the Balkans. He had decided to choose a different path for peace from that of his brother Osman who had vowed to fight to avenge the enemy till death. Yudja can never forget Osman who always had \u2018blood in his eyes\u2019 like he sees in young Fehrat.<\/p>\n

Yudja has vowed to keep himself from hating anyone having experienced the tragic cycle of vengeance and reprisal in the old war. His ideal is the principal corner-stone of the tradition of Bosnian multi-ethnic harmony: Whatever you are doing to other human beings, you are doing to yourself. <\/em>The novel ends with Yudja understanding the cause of Fehrat\u2019s deep anger. In the novel, Yudja\u2019s unflinching non-fighting stance is clear when he explains to friend Emina his inability to support her in joining her comrades who are fighting for an united Balkans: \u201cKilling is destruction, regardless of who does what to whom and why. Is it more humane and justifiable to butcher in the name of a better tomorrow and some vague ideals?! Killing is killing! They are all butchers to me. There is no difference…So, you are suggesting that I murder for the sake of the future of humanity. That I become one more criminal in the battle against other criminals…What you don\u2019t see is that the butchers will be victorious. … Do you really think that this will be the last of the butchery, if you win? If you think that there will be no more killing, then you are blind! …Maybe, I\u2019ll follow you into the Party if you will guarantee me that I will kill nobody and stay alive.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Bahtijaragic wanted to show that amidst violence in the Balkans, there were many who shunned killing and sought peace and harmony. Bahtijaragic recently pointed out: \u201cMy nonviolence and nonkilling point of view of human\u2019s relationships was very clear in this novel. I was all my life a pacifist. I was always blind for differences arising because of nations, religions and races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natalia\u2019s Peace<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Adrian de Hoog\u2019s novel, Natalia\u2019s Peace<\/em> incorporates the imminent need for world peace as a central theme. This is despite that the book is not a historical or a political\u00a0 story but a diplomatic-thriller, a genre in which de Hoog specializes. His novel is set in the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department and its Embassy in The Hague. The challenging themes of international politics of the day are touched upon: possibility of a Nonkilling world as the new world order; creation of a Global ethic with responsibility to prevent killing and to build a culture of peace; and the establishment of new peace infrastructures like a Federal Ministry of Peace. The Holland setting and the inside story of how governments operate comes natural to the author for his experience as a former diplomat and his Dutch-Canadian ethnicity.<\/p>\n

De Hoog\u2019s main protagonist Natalia is the Canadian ambassador in The Hague who is enthusiastic to get her country engaged in a UN based global peace initiative for creating a nonkilling world. The narrative shows the machinations of characters involved causing Natalia to fail because of corrupt politicians and deceitful lobbyists of military industrial complex, and their long reach inside democratic governments. The dealings not only destroy her career but her anthropologist husband is killed by same arms dealer lobbyist(s). Despite Natalia\u2019s losses, de Hoog redeems his heroine, finding a way for her to pursue a path outside the government, indicating that a righteous action could result in the end for those who act their conscience and believe in oneness of the humanity.<\/p>\n

Non-fiction<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Three new millennium non-fiction works reviewed in this section are examples of both\u00a0 top-down (a State Governor) and bottom-up (a peace mediator and a Jesuit priest) activists who epitomize the belief, \u201cBe the change you want the others to become.\u201d The books are: Diary of a Kidnapped Colombian Governor: A journey toward Nonviolent Transformation<\/em> by Guillermo Gaviria Correa (English translation,2010);\u00a0 Captivity: 118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World Without War <\/em>by James Loney (2011) and A Persistent Peace: One Man\u2019s Struggle for a Nonviolent World<\/em> by John Dear (2008).<\/p>\n

Diary of a Kidnapped Colombian Governor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Colombia\u2019s Antioquia Province\u2019s Governor Guillermo Gaviria Correa was kidnapped by FARC \u2018guerillas\u2019 on April 21, 2002 on the fifth day of his march for nonviolence and solidarity with the municipality of Caicedo which he planned and led. He was sacrificed by his captors in a failed rescue operation by military forces of Colombia on May 5, 2003. The Diary was written by Governor Gaviria as reflections of his year-long captivity in letters to his wife Yolanda Pinto de Gaviria. The book provides a reader an opportunity to reflect upon the futility of political kidnappings as a means of resolving political conflict to safeguard\u00a0 human rights of the poor peasants in his province. James Amstutz writes: \u201cThrough the Governor\u2019s eyes we see the day to day existence of the disappeared. Through his ears, we hear the lament of fellow captives and the deep longing for words of hope. Through his words we speak an abiding faith of one committed to a higher calling and purpose. Through his suffering and death we count the cost of our convictions to strive for a nonkilling global society. Gaviria\u2019s letters show day by day rising change in his efforts and commitment to bring both the Colombian authorities and FARC rebels closer to resolving issues that require basically mutual trust. That is more difficult than the apparent exchange of prisoners and surrender of arms by peasants. Neither side takes responsibility for the killings involved including that of taking down of Gaviria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Captivity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Author James Loney while serving as a volunteer witness for Canada\u2019s Christian Peace Maker Team (CPMT) during the second Iraq war was kidnapped in November 2004. He was held hostage for four months along with the three other members of a CPMT in a Baghdad suburb. This book written as a memoir examines the \u201cillogical logic of violence\u201d. Loney finds the paradox of his release as a hostage by Jihadi fighters whom he had gone to dissuade from participating in the US-Iraq war. He writes: \u201cMy living, breathing, everyday-walking \u2013around freedom comes directly from the hand of the soldier who took a bolt cutter in his hands and cut the chain that held me captive for four months. Yet I remain a pacifist, a Christian who believes that Jesus\u2019s teaching to love one\u2019s enemy is a call to lay down the sword and pick up the cross, to accept rather than inflict suffering. It is a paradox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loney\u2019s \u201cspiritual confrontation\u201d with and reaction to violence are the story, and his journey back from captivity to a life of spiritual wholeness is the outcome. There is a deep truth telling in this book. Not only Loney sets on a path of nonviolence but in \u201cthe process (he) tries to unravel the context of Christian and Catholic tradition which has been often ambivalent toward war.\u201d(Schwartzentruber, 2011:148) Loney is a grass-roots activist with previous experience of being a Humanist Intervener in Palestine. He has been trained by CPMT before coming to Baghdad. \u00a0The relationship between the captor and the captive is critical to him: \u201cthe captor requires two things from his captive: one, primary, the other secondary (though no less necessary). The first: control and submission. The second: absolution. It is in this second dimension as the captors come to experience the humanity of their captives which opens up a kind of spiritual passage, a common humanity between them.\u201d (Schwartzentruber, 2011:149) \u00a0Loney describes this transformative Nonkilling moment as follows: \u201cIt seems as if the first step down the road to violence is taken when I dehumanize a person. That violence might stay within my thoughts or find its way into the outer world and become expressed verbally, psychologically, structurally or physically. As soon as I rob a fellow human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on them, I begin the process that can have, as an end result, torture, injury and death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loney remains a nonviolent champion, he practices what he preaches even when that means putting his life in danger. He believes that those working for peace in war have to be ready to die as soldiers who go to fight military wars. What motivates Loney and his colleagues is the belief that to serve as an humanist “intermediary\u201d is about amplifying the cries of those who had no voice, a sort of human rights special forces team in the field. His Nonkilling ethics is reflected in his spontaneous upright moral reaction amidst harsh reality of captivity: “The glory of- just- being alive” or conviction that he wants to share with his captors that we all were created to give life, not to take it. He asks: “what would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to non-violent peacemaking that armies devote to war?” \u00a0At another place, he thinks aloud to his imagined reader : \u00a0“I wonder, if we sat and talked for a while, if I could tell you about them, maybe you would see what I have begun to see, that there is no such thing as “Iraqi freedom” or “American freedom” that there is only human freedom. We were created to give life, not to take it. Our freedom begins when we live in accord with this purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Persistent Peace<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is autobiography of an American Jesuit peace activist, John Dear. It starts in Israel by the Sea of Galilee and ends in New Mexico, taking us to all the troubled spots of the past two decades across the globe (Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, USA etc) where Dear resisted peacefully those in power. He has been arrested more than seventy-five times for his civil disobedience for different causes mostly in the USA, in protests against the mighty US military-industrial-complex. One of such protests has been at the Los Alamos labs where nuclear weaponry is developed.<\/p>\n

Dear describes his life journey to be taking him to the Gospel nonviolence. His conscience wouldn\u2019t allow him to accept that both the God of peace and the idols of war can co-exist \u2013 \u201cOne can\u2019t sing praises to the Creator and design weapons that could put the earth into an eternal winter\u201d.\u00a0 In one of his visits to a school in New Mexico he asks a student \u2013 \u201cwhat is that about when Jesus says, The Kingdom of God is at hand?\u201d He is struck by the insightful reply of the youth: \u201cIsn\u2019t the kingdom of God life itself?\u201d Dear states that the youth\u2019s simple yet honest reply made him understand for the first time that the substance of life itself is the reign\/kingdom of God. It is already here, ever present in our ordinary lives \u2013 in breathing and wonder. For him, the Gospel of Nonviolence holds the key to personal and societal transformation. He concludes: \u201cThe future will be a future of peace, if we dare to seek it, sacrifice for it, and enact it \u2013 a new world without war, poverty, or nuclear weapons, where God\u2019s reign abounds freely and all accept its abundant grace and love.\u201d\u00a0 As Catholic activist Dorothy Day once said, \u201cthe measure of discipleship is the amount of trouble you are in for justice and peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Creativity and Nonkilling Literature <\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of the earliest references to \u201cNonkilling creativity\u201d by Glenn D. Paige I found in a book by Daisaku Ikeda, For the Sake of Peace<\/em> (2001). In his Foreword, Paige wrote that when he first met Soka Gakai International (SGI) President Ikeda in December, 1980, \u201cour dialogue centered on the importance of creativity in realizing global conditions of principled respect for life.\u201d (Ikeda, 2001, p.xi) Ikeda greatly respected creative thinking. Like Ikeda, Paige\u2019s drive from the outset has been on how to make such creative discoveries educative and transformational.<\/p>\n

It is the creative ability of the artist however that helps to tap into the human conscience, holding the mirror to our souls in which both our good and ugly traits get reflected in the hope that the reflection would urge us and our leaders to question the status quo and take action for change. The emancipation of the human spirit is the ultimate hope of an artist wanting to create a work of art. In literary explorations, potential for finding deeper insights intuitively are significant, and might not be possible through empirical works;\u00a0 they emanate essentially from the call of conscience.<\/p>\n

Internal and External Quests<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A nonkilling literary creation reminds us about the sanctity of life, not about just one individual but the whole humanity irrespective of race, religion or nationality. As Japanese educationist Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) once remarked that human beings did not have the power to create matter, they only had the power to create value.(SGI Quarterly, 2012:13) Aspirations for a nonkilling world in itself is a value – the creation of a vision. The actions and aspirations of protagonists in the three novels show that Misha, Yudja, or Natalia, despite trying circumstances, are searching\u00a0 for a space where they could hold on to their deeper convictions and integrity without fear. This search for truth is both external and internal. The external is related to courage to find a physical space that will enable them to breathe freely, liberating them from the stifling culture steeped in power inequities. To fight these, the protagonists have little choice but to be a part of a struggle in their fractionated homeland or escape to a relatively more humane and freer foreign land to start again. For Misha and Yudja, their refuge is Canada; for Canadian Natalia and her husband it is in the other direction, Holland.<\/p>\n

Their internal quest points to a profound reverence for human life as each individual is indispensible and respectworthy. That comes through a unexpected self-discovery of one\u2019s true self. It is about admission of that inherent purer form of love present in all, waiting to be tapped. Yudja cannot help but confess to Fehrat about his past, admitting that despite high minded ideals of pacifism, he is in fact his biological father who had abandoned him to escape to a foreign land. In Natalia\u2019s loss of her anti-violence\u00a0 husband killed by military lobbyists, she is determined to continue his work in setting up an independent Institute of Peace abroad. In Nonkilling memoirs of Gaviria and Loney, the peace captives in conversations with their kidnappers, cherish using dialectics instead of weapons as a way of not seeing adversaries as ruthless foes. It is a unique opportunity to test their core values. \u00a0While living among guerrilla encampment, Gaviria is hopeful to arise a humanist fellowship with guerilla fighters despite their continued suspicion of the government officials\u2019 offer of quid pro quo release of rebels held hostage by the Colombian government.<\/p>\n

Parameters of Nonkilling Literature<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Unarmed Gaviria and Loney who are Catholics, without explicitly talking about their faiths, rely on an internal belief system what Lev Tolstoy described in his book, \u2018The Kingdom of God is Within You\u2019. (Tarasoff, 2010). Love and and forgiveness are central to a path to peace.<\/p>\n

The artist having a principled nonkilling spirit within is of fundamental importance in these artistic creations. These works whether fiction or non-fiction are not written from a place of hatred but with a genuine desire of reconciliation with enemy.\u00a0<\/strong> Otherwise as Paige notes, we just seem to get \u2018atrocity- lamenting\u2019 art over the centuries without any principled nonkilling critique. Recipients must make their own judgments. Hatred and counter killing remain an option. Both fiction and non-fiction works reviewed here confirm Paige\u2019s contention that \u201cnonkilling discovery within seems important before expressing it artistically or otherwise to others.\u201d To Paige an artist \u201cwithout nonkilling spirit within might hypothetically invent it like scientists simulating nuclear war.\u201d (Paige: note to Bhaneja 12July2012)<\/p>\n

We have to go beyond tendencies of conventional arts to lament, entertain and profit from atrocities of killing, often extolling the heroism and victory of favored champion military and other killers. In contrast, we must analyse nonviolent champions whose actions have transformed conflict from violence to nonviolence.\u00a0 Governor Gavaria walks into FARC rebel territory and knowingly becomes their prisoner, it does not necessarily bring positive results.\u00a0 Instead his altruism ends up in a botched rescue mission by the authorities making him a Nonkilling martyr — the circumstances of unintended Nonkilling martyrdom that could have been prevented by actions of others. Nonkilling literature helps us reflect on ways of overcoming trauma associated with innocent human killing through a better understanding of such tragic engagements, these have significant potential to become epic nonviolent movements.<\/p>\n

Nonkilling Literature, Poetry and Humanizing Education<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A good literary work comes about as a response to the reality in which its creator is living or surrounded by it. The intent is to create a space in which such literature could be imagined and recognized to promote essence of nonkilling ethic (or its lack thereof). Humanizing education through Nonkilling analytic can help make one understand the context and motivation — the root causes and tipping points for the start and end of conflict. A causation that reveals: what is the cause of killing, what could have prevented the killing, and the characteristics of a completely killing-free situation? (Paige, 2002: 72).\u00a0 Study of such context through Nonkilling writing can make one observe, argue, and understand facts and motivations of decisions that may have been taken about killings and nonkilling.<\/p>\n

Poetry is another art form where nonkilling imagination has brought new insights to understanding of human psyche and behaviour. The work of Francisco Gomes de Matos a Brazilian peace linguist and a pioneer in Humanising Nonkilling poetry deserves a singular mention. Professor George Simson in his introduction to Gomes de Matos\u2019 slim book of poems, “Nurturing Nonkilling: A Poetic Plantation” (2009) notes that in his rhythmic reflections “mortality is celebrated, not feared…they demand intellectual courage with the smile of rational equanimity.” \u00a0 These reflections show \u201cthat nonkilling thought, act, imagination, art, feeling, commitment, teaching and career can be experienced , thought about, committed to, felt imagined in a whole world of permutations and combinations far beyond innocence. Mythic fictions are nice confections but have to give way to the reality of mortality, hence nonkilling.” (Gomes de Matos, 2009, George Simson:11).<\/p>\n

In a nut-shell, nonkilling literature seeks to discover truth of how to discern what one\u2019s life is worth both as an individual and as a citizen. It filters things out and is left with the essence of what has to be treasured most – life beyond destructive forces of any kind. Fear, anger, and hatred play a critical role in an act of killing, while such positive emotions as empathy, trust, and forgiveness inhibit aggressive behaviour. The literature is in cognition of the both aspects through observation and evaluation leading to understanding of the truth in its fullness. Humanizing education can be a way to make humans of virtue and courage who speak truth to power and act righteously.<\/p>\n

In his poem \u201cWriters for Nonkilling\u201d\u00a0 Gomes de Matos (2009: 102)\u00a0 aptly summarizes:<\/p>\n

“Of all the wisdoms in which writers can excel<\/em>
\nthere is one which humanizingly stands out<\/em>
\nIt thrives where Peace and Nonkilling dwell<\/em><\/p>\n

Writers sail strong seas of saying and seeing<\/em>
\nwhen as courageous peacemakers they are inspired<\/em>
\nWriters can bring beauty to the blessing of being\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We need more creation and identification of Nonkilling literary works to provide new insights into authentic self-discoveries and relationships that cut across cultural, ethnic, gender and national divides. These insights will enable us comprehend conflict from the point of view of \u2018universal human\u2019 and inspire us for a life-affirming globe.<\/p>\n

Bibliography of the Literary Works Reviewed in the Article<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fiction<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bahtijaragic, Rifet, (2010), Chernovs\u2019 Toil and Peace<\/em>, Baltimore, MD: Publish America, 2010, pp. 524.<\/p>\n

Bahtijaragic, Rifet, (2012) Blood in the Eyes<\/em>, Baltimore,MD: Publish America, pp. 280.<\/p>\n

De Hoog, Adrian (2011), Natalia\u2019s Peace<\/em>, Ottawa: Adytum Publishing, pp. 341.<\/p>\n

Non-fiction<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bahtijaragic,<\/em>Rifet (2008), FOOTPRINTS: Poetry and threads of a poetical impression<\/em>, Trafford Publishing, pp.222. “FOOTPRINTS <\/em>combines poetry, essays and “fictive” interviews with Marshal Tito, the Dalai Lama, and Stephen Hawking. Bahtijaragic notes that his “poetry born out of the\u00a0 Bosnian War – lyrical, bitter, impassioned, searching, and ultimately hopeful.”<\/p>\n

Dear, John (2008), A Persistent Peace: One Man\u2019s Struggle for a Nonviolent World<\/em>, Chicago: Loyola Press, pp.437.<\/p>\n

Gaviria Correa, Guillermo (2010), Diary of a Kidnapped Colombian Governor: A Journey Toward a Nonviolent Transformation,<\/em> Telford PA: DreamSeeker Books, Cascadia Publishing House, pp.283.<\/p>\n

Loney, James, (2011) \u00a0Captivity: 118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World Without War<\/em>. Toronto: Knopf,\u00a0 pp.432.<\/p>\n

Poetry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gomes de Matos, Francisco, Nurturing Nonkilling:A Poetic Plantation<\/em>, 2010 Honolulu: Centre for Global Nonkilling. pp.152. Foreword by George Simson. Text can be also downloaded at: www.nonkilling.org<\/a><\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Frye, Northrop, (2007) Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays<\/em>, 2007, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.<\/p>\n

Ikeda, Daisaku, (2001), For the Sake of Peace: Seven Paths to Global Harmony<\/em>, Santa Monica: Middleway Press<\/p>\n

Paige, Glenn D., (2002, 2009), Nonkilling Global Political Science<\/em>, Philadelphia: Xlibris and Honolulu: Center for Global Nonkilling<\/p>\n

Paige, Glenn D. (2012), Nonkilling Arts: Five Scenarios<\/em>, July 28, 2012 (email to Bill Bhaneja, Coordinator, Nonkilling Arts Research Committee)<\/p>\n

Paige, Glenn D., A note on importance of artist having a nonkilling spirit, email to Bill Bhaneja, 12 July 2012 email)<\/p>\n

Satha-Anand,Chaiwat comment on the Alpha-Omega dimension of Nonkilling, Nonkilling Leadership Academy, Center for Global Nonkilling, Honolulu, Fall 2010<\/p>\n

SGI Quarterly, Special Issue on \u201cDeveloping Creativity\u201d<\/em>, January 2012, Number 27. Tsunesaburo Makiguchi quoted in an article entitled, \u201cCreating Value\u201d by Jason Goulah, pp.12-13.<\/p>\n

Schwartzentruber, Paul (2011) Review Essay on James Loney\u2019s Captivity<\/em> in Ahimsa Nonviolence, Vol VII, No. 3, July-Sept. 2011, pp147-149<\/p>\n

Tarasoff, Koozma J.(2010) Review of Chernovs’ Toil and Peace, A historical novel about a Doukhobor family<\/em> by Rifet Bahtijaragic on website: www.spirit-wrestlers.com<\/a>. 4 Aug. 2010 (also on https:\/\/docs.google.com\/Doc?id=dnxrfb8_534cn3m2888<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Urbain, Olivier (2009), \u201cNonkilling Arts\u201d<\/em> in Towards a Nonkilling Paradigm<\/em>, ed: Jo\u00e1m Evans Pim, Honolulu: Center for Global Nonkilling, 2009, pp.13-35 . Text available on www.nonkilling.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Note<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are other literary works not covered in the article due to space constraints.\u00a0 Some\u00a0 have been mentioned\/reviewed in posts in the back issues of Nonkilling Arts Research Committee Letter (https:\/\/nonkilling.org\/center\/publications-media\/nonkilling-arts\/<\/a>) and on Center for Global Nonkilling website (www.nonkiling.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr. Bill (Balwant) Bhaneja\u00a0is a former Canadian science diplomat, a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, and <\/em>author of six books and scholarly papers on politics and science. He holds a PhD in science policy from UK\u2019s Victoria University of Manchester, currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Center for Global Nonkilling<\/a> in Honolulu-Hawai\u2019i of which he is a founding member, and produces\u00a0the Nonkilling Arts Research Committee (NKARC)\u00a0 Newsletter.\u00a0A peace activist, his recent books include:\u00a0<\/em>Quest for Gandhi: A Nonkilling Journey (2010)<\/em> and<\/em> Troubled Pilgrimage: Passage to Pakistan (2013). He lives in Ottawa, Canada.<\/em> Email: billbhaneja@rogers.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – hltmag.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5 Oct 2021 – It was Canadian philosopher Northrop Frye who once observed that we may not live in literature as much as we live in culture. Six recent nonkilling literary works with a focus on saving humanity from killings are examined. The books, both fiction and non-fiction, point not only to the act of lethality but also challenges posed by societal dehumanization, deprivation and declining values.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":175204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[642,1056,870],"class_list":["post-196913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-literature","tag-nonkilling","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}