Obama's Nobel - Nobel watchers were surprised

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 90 times to 120 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2009 – 97 times to individuals and 23 times to organizations. Since International Committee of the Red Cross was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944 and 1963, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981, that means 97 individuals and 20 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel isn’t something that was created yesterday. Since 1901 it has stood for inflexible standards. Unwavering. Unquestionable.Even the most seasoned Nobel watchers were surprised by Obama's Nobel — they hadn't expected the U.S. president, who took office barely two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline, to be seriously considered until at least next year.

The general criteria for the Nobel Prize, according to Alfred Nobel’s will, is that the recognition should go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize 2009, for giving the world "hope for a better future" and striving for nuclear disarmament, in a surprise award that drew both warm praise and sharp criticism. The decision to bestow one of the world's top accolades on a president less than nine months into his first term, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, was greeted with gasps of astonishment from journalists at the announcement in Oslo. The 'stunning surprise' of US President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize 2009, was greeted at home with expressions of disbelief to praise for a 'bold choice'.

The choice was a shocker to international observers...and one that has already stirred up some bouts of cynicism. The choice represents 'infantilism' on the part of the Nobel Committee, and 'soft-bellied adoration of an untested president'.The Washington Post said in awarding the coveted prize to Obama, the 'Nobel Committee echoed a global embrace of the US president that has seen his popularity overseas often exceed his support at home'.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has made some controversial picks over the years from Henry Kissinger to Yasser Arafat. But Eleanor Roosevelt, Vaclav Havel, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Sari Nusseibeh, Corazon Aquino and Liu Xiaobo were deprived even though they were deserving ones.

Mahatma Gandhi tops the list of seven people who never won the Nobel Peace Prize but deserved the most. The committee also seems to have been affected by regional and racial biases; most of the prior awards had been given to white European men.

Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948. Although the committee considered awarding Gandhi the prize in 1948, following his assassination, Alfred Nobel's Will clearly required that the award be given to a living person. However, the decision to not dispense any award that year because "there was no suitable living candidate" appears to be an implicit admission that the committee missed its opportunity to recognise Gandhi's accomplishments.

'I surely believe without Mahatma Gandhi - without Gandhi in India - there would be no Barack Obama as president' of the United States. So said John Lewis, an American civil rights movement leader and a close friend of the late Dr Martin Luther King Jr. 'There is a trend, there is a strain, there is what I call the spirit of history, and every now and then in the history of humankind, that spirit strikes down some embodiment of change - some force,' said Lewis, a member of the US House of Representatives.'I think it was Englishman Arnold Toynbee who had suggested that it may be in the end, the American Negro who would take the message of Gandhi to the Western world,' said Lewis, who marched with Dr King in Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s.

'Martin Luther King, Jr, became the embodiment and we followed him,' added Lewis, who was one of the awardees at Wednesday's event also celebrating the partnership between the Indian-American, Jewish-American and African-American communities.

Mahatma Gandhi never won the Nobel Prize for Peace, but the apostle of truth and non-violence continues to inspire people around the globe who go on to win the coveted honour - US President Barack Obama being the latest among them. Obama had called Gandhi the 'real hero of mine' and paid rich tributes to the great man's ideals only last week.

The committee that picks the winner has apologised for missing out in honouring Gandhi and, as if to compensate for it, has often chosen to bestow the prize on those inspired by the Mahatma.

When Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama was awarded the peace prize in 1989, the Nobel Committee chairman had said this was 'in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi'. Before the Dalai Lama, of course, was Martin Luther King, Jr. The 1964 laureate had acknowledged Gandhi as one of his inspirations.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the resistance leader from Myanmar who won the prize in 1991, as well as Nelson Mandela of South Africa who shared the 1993 prize with Frederik Willem de Klerk, too found inspiration from the life and works of Gandhi -- to fight injustice and strive for a more equal society while abjuring violence.

On Friday, the Gandhian club among the Nobel laureates got one more member. Obama has talked about how Gandhi's thoughts and his autobiography impressed him deeply.On Oct 2, as the world celebrated the International Day of Non-Violence on Gandhi's birth anniversary, Obama said: 'Gandhi's teachings and ideals, shared with Martin Luther King Jr. on his 1959 pilgrimage to India, transformed American society through our civil rights movement.

'The America of today has its roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi and the non-violent social action movement for Indian independence which he led. We must renew our commitment to live his ideals and to celebrate the dignity of all human beings.