Supreme Court judge Justice A.R. Dave on Saturday said Indians should revert to their ancient traditions and texts such as the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita should be introduced to children at an early age.

“Our old tradition such as ‘Guru Shishya parampara’ is lost, had it been there, we would not have had all these problems (violence and terrorism) in our country,” Justice Dave said at an international conference on ‘contemporary issues and challenges of human rights in the era of globalisation’ here.

“Now we see terrorism in countries. Most of the countries are democratic ... If everybody in a democratic country is good then they would naturally elect somebody who is very good. And that person will never think of damaging anybody else,” he said.

“So by bringing [out] all the good things in each and every human being, we can stop the violence everywhere. And for that purpose we have to go back to our own things again.”

The judge proposed that the Bhagavad Gita and the Mahabharata should be introduced to students from first standard. “Somebody who is very secular ... so-called secular will not agree ... Had I been the dictator of India, I would have introduced Gita and Mahabharata in Class I. That is the way you learn how to live life. I am sorry if somebody says I am secular or I am not secular. But if there is something good, we have to get it from anywhere,” Justice Dave said.