More than a century later, the Nobel Peace Prize still carries that original moral weight—though in recent times it has also begun carrying a rather heavy burden of theatre and theatrics.
A Legacy of Merit and Omission
Speaking of Nobel Prizes, I am reminded of the year 2001, which happened to be the 100th year of the Nobel Prizes, and to mark this important historical event, Mr I K Mukherjee, DG, NCSM, my parent organisation, decided to develop a traveling exhibition. I was accordingly tasked, in early 2001, immediately on my transfer from NSC Delhi to NSC Mumbai, to curate this exhibition. While it was a great honour to curate this exhibition “100 Years of Nobel Prizes” and take it across science centres in India, including IUCAA, I somehow was somehow able to present the Peace Prize, one of the most controversial, as an aspirational ideal.
Incidentally, the massive success of this exhibition, including the exhibition venue in the National Science Centre, Delhi, chosen to release the special publication by the Encyclopedia Britannica, resulted in successfully attracting the hosting of an exhibition from the Nobel Museum, Sweden, a decade later at the National Science Centre, Delhi, when I was its Director in 2010. This was an exhibition titled "Network of Innovation" from the Nobel Museum. This exhibition presented the genesis, the secrecy, and even the occasional missteps that were taken by Alfred Nobel, which were part of a grand human effort to reward those who had conferred the “greatest benefit to humankind”, the Nobel Prizes.
India knows the weight of this Peace Prize legacy poignantly. Mahatma Gandhi—the most influential apostle of non-violence—never received the Nobel Peace prize. That omission remains the Prize’s most eloquent silence. In contrast, another Indian, Mother Teresa, accepted this honour with a quiet moral authority that turned the world's gaze toward the poorest of the poor rather than the podium.
The Davos Circus and the Greenland "Quest"
Which brings us, inevitably, to the present—and the 2026 World Economic Forum at Davos. What used to be a summit for economic sobriety – a venue which christened and coined the term Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) that now governs us all, including the AI - has transformed into a stage for the surreal. Amidst the snow-capped peaks, the inimitable President, Donald Trump, dominated the halls not with trade or economic deals, but with a persistent, almost medieval quest to "acquire" Greenland.
In a speech that left not just the European leaders, but the world leaders stunned, Trump described the world’s largest island as a "piece of ice" that the U.S. "should have kept" after World War II. "How stupid were we to give it back?" he asked a silent audience, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the world was facing a "rupture" where superpowers use coercion over cooperation. The sight of a U.S. President demanding "right, title, and ownership" of a sovereign territory felt less like 21st-century diplomacy and more like a property developer eyeing a distressed asset.
The Nobel as a "Gift"
The farce reached its zenith when the media conversation turned to the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Awarded to María Corina Machado for her democratic struggle in Venezuela, the prize was intended as a beacon of hope. Instead, it became a bargaining chip. In a move that sent shockwaves through the Nobel Foundation in Oslo, Machado symbolically "gifted" her medal to Trump.
The irony was thick enough to choke on. Trump, who had just orchestrated the daring abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and declared that the U.S. would now "run" the country and its oil, accepted the medal as validation. He claimed it was a "wonderful gesture" for a man who—by his own count—had "ended eight wars"- including Operation Sindhoor.
At Davos, the pushback was visceral. French President Emmanuel Macron noted that Europe’s tolerance had been exhausted, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of building a "new, independent Europe" free from such "bullying." They saw the contradiction clearly: a leader who initiates a regime-change kidnapping and eyes foreign lands for annexation cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be the "fittest" for a prize founded on the abolition of standing armies and the promotion of peace congresses.
Ownership Divorced from Meaning
The Nobel Foundation was forced to issue a crisp, dignified reminder: a Nobel Prize cannot be transferred, gifted, or shared. The laureate and the Prize are inseparable. One may hold the gold disc, but the honour does not travel like a visiting card.
It was a necessary clarification—and an unintentionally comic one. For here was a President in possession of the medal but not the honour; and a laureate in possession of the honour but not the medal. The Prize had become a metaphor for our times: ownership divorced from meaning.
The Enduring Ideal
And yet, for all this satire, the Nobel Peace Prize endures. It endures because Mandela received it. Because Martin Luther King Jr. received it. The controversies sting precisely because the Prize still matters. Alfred Nobel’s original paradox remains: Dynamite could be controlled; human ambition cannot.
As for those who yearn for the medal through theatre rather than toil, history offers a gentle lesson: peace pursued for glory rarely earns either. And the Mahatma – MK Gandhi, unencumbered by gold discs, continues to remind us that the most enduring honours are the ones that can never be "gifted" away.
Long live notwithstanding the controversy that may come its way.
Images: Courtesy Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and National Science Centre, Delhi
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