Gandhi's Philosophy of Nonviolence

36 £UP® kupah fiy kw;Wk; mwptpay; (kfspu;) fy;Y}up> jpUney;Ntyp gz;ila tuyhWk; jkpou; gz;ghLk; Gandhi’s Philosophy of Nonviolence Dr. T. Edwin Devadoss Assistant Professor of History St. John’s College, Palaymkottai Introduction With Gandhi, the notion of nonviolence attained a special status. He not only theorized on it, he adopted nonviolence as a philosophy and an ideal way of life. He made us understand that the philosophy of nonviolence is not a weapon of the weak it is a weapon, which can be tried by all. Nonviolence was not Gandhi’s invention. He is however called the father of nonviolence because according to Mark Shepard, He raised nonviolent action to a level never before achieved. Krishna Kripalani again asserts Gandhi was the first in Human history to extend the principle of nonviolence from the individual to social and political plane. While scholars were talking about an idea without a name or a movement, Gandhi is the person who came up with the name and brought together different related ideas under one concept: Satyagraha. Gandhi’s View of Violence / Nonviolence Gandhi saw violence pejoratively and also identified two forms of violence; Passive and Physical, as we saw earlier. The practice of passive violence is a daily affair, consciously and unconsciously. It is again the fuel that ignites the fire of physical violence. Gandhi understands violence from its Sanskrit root, “himsa”, meaning injury. In the midst of hyper violence, Gandhi teaches that the one who possess nonviolence is blessed. Blessed is the man who can perceive the law of ahimsa (nonviolence) in the midst of the raging fire of himsa all around him. We bow in reverence to such a man by his example. The more adverse the circumstances around him, the intenser grows his longing for deliverance from the bondage of flesh which is a vehicle of himsa. Gandhi objects to violence because it perpetuates hatred. When it appears to do ‘good’, the good is only temporary and cannot do any good in the long run. A true nonviolence activist accepts violence on himself without inflicting it on another. This is heroism, and will be discussed in another section. When Gandhi says that in the course of fighting for human rights, one should accept violence and self-suffering, he does not applaud cowardice. Cowardice for him is “the greatest violence, certainly, far greater than bloodshed and the like that generally go under the name of violence. For Gandhi, perpetrators of violence (whom he referred to as criminals), are products of social disintegration. Gandhi feels that violence is not a natural tendency of humans. It is a learned experience. There is need for a perfect weapon to combat violence and this is nonviolence. Gandhi understood nonviolence from its Sanskrit root “Ahimsa”. Ahimsa is just translated to mean nonviolence in English, but it implies more than just avoidance of physical violence. Ahimsa implies total nonviolence, no physical violence, and no passive violence. ©»º: 13 ]Ó¨¤uÌ: 2 ©õu®: ö\¨h®£º Á¸h®: 2025 P-ISSN: 2321-788X E-ISSN: 2582-0397 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.17313542 http://www.shanlaxjournals.com 37 £UP® Shanlax International Journal of Arts, Science and Humanities Gandhi translates Ahimsa as love. This is explained by Arun Gandhi in an interview thus; He (Gandhi) said ahimsa means love. Because if you have love towards somebody, and you respect that person, then you are not going to do any harm to that person. For Gandhi, nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than any weapon of mass destruction. It is superior to brute force. It is a living force of power and no one has been or will ever be able to measure its limits or it’s extend. Gandhi’s nonviolence is the search for truth. Truth is the most fundamental aspect in Gandhi’s Philosophy of nonviolence. His whole life has been “experiments of truth”. It was in this course of his pursuit of truth that Gandhi discovered nonviolence, which he further explained in his Autobiography thus Ahimsa is the basis of the search for truth. I am realizing that this search is vain, unless it is founded on ahimsa as the basis. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills. For nonviolence to be strong and effective, it must begin with the mind, without which it will be nonviolence of the weak and cowardly. A coward is a person who lacks courage when facing a dangerous and unpleasant situation and tries to avoid it. A man cannot practice ahimsa and at the same time be a coward. True nonviolence is dissociated from fear. Gandhi feels that possession of arms is not only cowardice but also lack of fearlessness or courage. Gandhi stressed this when he says; “I can imagine a fully armed man to be at heart a coward. Possession of arms implies an element of fear, if not cowardice but true nonviolence is impossibility without the possession of unadulterated fearlessness. In the face of violence and injustice, Gandhi considers violent resistance preferable to cowardly submission. There is hope that a violent man may someday be nonviolent, but there is no room for a coward to develop fearlessness. Gandhi View of Satyagraha Satyagraha was not a preconceived plan for Gandhi. Event in his life culminating in his “Bramacharya vow”, prepared him for it. He therefore underlined: Events were so shaping themselves in Johannesburg as to make this selfpurification on my part a preliminary as it were to Satyagraha. I can now see that all the principal events of my life, culminating in the vow of Bramacharya were secretly preparing me for it. Satyagraha is a moral weapon and the stress is on soul force over physical force. It aims at winning the enemy through love and patient suffering. It aims at winning over an unjust law, not at crushing, punishing, or taking revenge against the authority, but to convert and heal it. Though it started as a struggle for political rights, Satyagraha became in the long run a struggle for individual salvation, which could be achieved through love and selfsacrifice. Satyagraha is meant to overcome all methods of violence. Gandhi explained in a letter to Lord Hunter that Satyagraha is a movement based entirely upon truth. It replaces every form of violence, direct and indirect, veiled and unveiled and whether in thought, word or deed. Satyagraha is for the strong in spirit. A doubter or a timid person cannot do it. Satyagraha teaches the art of living well as well as dying. It is love and unshakeable firmness that comes from it. Its training is meant for all, irrespective of age and sex. The most important training is mental not physical. Satyagraha in Action For Satyagraha to be valid, it has to be tested. When the principles are applied to specific political and social action, the tools of civil disobedience, noncooperation, nonviolent strike, and constructive action are cherished. South Africa and India were ‘laboratories’ where Gandhi tested his new technique. Satyagraha was a necessary weapon for Gandhi to work in South Africa and India. Louis Fischer attests that: Gandhi could never have achieved what he did in South Africa and India but for a weapon peculiarly his own. It was unprecedented indeed; it was so unique he could not find a name for it until he finally hit upon Satyagraha. South Africa is the acclaimed birthplace of Satyagraha. Here Satyagraha was employed to fight for the civil rights of Indians in South Africa. In India, Gandhi applied Satyagraha in his sociopolitical milieu and carried out several acts of civil disobedience culminating in the Salt March. Another wonderful way of seeing Satyagraha in action is through the fasting of Mahatma Gandhi. Fasting was part and parcel of his philosophy of truth and 38 £UP® kupah fiy kw;Wk; mwptpay; (kfspu;) fy;Y}up> jpUney;Ntyp gz;ila tuyhWk; jkpou; gz;ghLk; nonviolence. Mahatma Gandhi was an activist - a moral and spiritual activist. And fasting was one of his strategies of activism, in many ways his most powerful. Qualities of a Nonviolence Activist Gandhi was quite aware that there was need to train people who could carry on with his Satyagraha campaigns. He trained them in his “Satyagraha Ashrams”. Here are some of the basic qualities of expected of a Satyagrahi. · A Satyagraha should have a living faith in God for he is his only Rock. · One must believe in truth and nonviolence as one’s creed and therefore have faith in the inherent goodness of human nature. · One must live a chaste life and be ready and willing for the sake of one’s cause to give up his life and his possessions. · One must be free from the use any intoxicant, in order that his reason may be undivided and his mind constant. · One must carry out with a willing heart all the rules of discipline as may be laid down from time to time. · One should carry out the jail rules unless they are especially dense to hurt his self-respect. · A satyagrahi must accept to suffer in order to correct a situation. In a nutshell, Satyagraha is itself a movement intended to fight social and promote ethical values. It is a whole philosophy of nonviolence. It is undertaken only after all the other peaceful means have proven ineffective. At its heart is nonviolence. An attempt is made to convert, persuade or win over the opponent. It involves applying the forces of both reason and conscience simultaneously, while holding aloft the indisputable truth of his/ her position. The Satyagrahi also engages in acts of voluntary suffering. Any violence inflicted by the opponent is accepted without retaliation. The opponent can only become morally bankrupt if violence continues to be inflicted indefinitely. Several methods can be applied in a Satyagraha campaign. Stephen Murphy gives primacy to “noncooperation and fasting”. Bertrand Russell has this to say about Gandhi’s method. The essence of this method which he (Gandhi) gradually brought to greater and greater perfection consisted in refusal to do things, which the authorities wished to have done, while abstaining from any positive action of an aggressive sort.The method always had in Gandhi’s mind a religious aspect. As a rule, this method depended upon moral force for its success. Reference 1. M.K. GANDHI, An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments With truth, Ahmedabad; Navajivan Trust, 2003, 254. 2. NIRMAL KUMAR BOSE, Selections from Gandhi, Ahmedabad; Navajivan Trust, 1948,154. 3. M.K. GANDHI, Nonviolence in Peace and War,(2nd ed. Ahmedadad, Navijivan Trust, 1944