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Truth and non-violence – The twin pillars of Gandhian thought

Nikhil Jha

Mahatma Gandhi used the ideals of truth and non-violence as his tools as he led India's freedom struggle against British colonial rule.

Mahatma Gandhi

Key Highlights

  • Born on October 2, 1869, Gandhi is also known as the Father of the Nation
  • To Gandhi, non-violence was not a negative concept but a positive sense of love
  • During the freedom struggle, Gandhi introduced the spirit of Satyagraha to the world

Whenever we think of Mahatma Gandhi, two words come to our mind - truth and non-violence - as he was a staunch believer in these two ideals. Born on October 2, 1869, Gandhi is known as the Father of the Nation. A lawyer by profession, he used truth and non-violence as his tools during India's freedom struggle against British colonial rule. Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, almost five months after India gained independence, but his ideals of truth and non-violence still remain relevant in the 21st century.

Gandhi believed that truth is the relative truthfulness in word and deed, and the absolute truth - the ultimate reality. This ultimate truth is God and morality, and the moral laws and code - its basis. According to Gandhi, non-violence implies uttermost selflessness. It means, if anyone wants to realise himself, i.e., if he wants to search for the truth, he has to behave in such a way that others will think him entirely safe.

To him, non-violence was not a negative concept but a positive sense of love. He talked of loving the wrong-doers, but not the wrong. He strongly opposed any sort of submission to wrongs and injustice in an indifferent manner. He thought that the wrong-doers can be resisted only through the severance of all relations with them.

During the freedom struggle, Gandhi introduced the spirit of Satyagraha to the world. Satyagraha means devotion to truth, remaining firm on the truth and resisting untruth actively but nonviolently.

According to Gandhi, a satyagrahi must believe in truth and nonviolence as one's creed and therefore have faith in the inherent goodness of human nature. Besides, a satyagrahi 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, he would assert.

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There are several examples in history which show how strictly Gandhi followed the practice of non-violence in his life and political journey. One of them is the withdrawal of the Non-cooperation movement, which began in August 1920. The movement was aimed at self-governance and obtaining independence, with the Indian National Congress withdrawing its support for British reforms following the Rowlatt Act of March 1919 and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 1919. 

However, Gandhi suddenly ended the Non-cooperation movement in 1922 after the Chauri Chaura incident, though many Congress leaders wanted it to continue. The incident occurred at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur district of present-day Uttar Pradesh in February 1922, when a large group of protesters, participating in the Non-cooperation movement, clashed with the police, who opened fire. In the ensuing violence, the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, killing several policemen. Gandhi, who was against violence in all forms, ended the Non-cooperation movement as a direct result of this incident.

Truth and non-violence were supreme to him, whatever the political and personal costs.

The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way represent those of Times Network.

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Mahatma Gandhi: As Apostle Of Truth, Non-violence And Tolerance

  • Category History
  • Subcategory Historical Figures
  • Topic Mahatma Gandhi

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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is known to the world as Mahatma Gandhi and Father of the Nation through the outstanding contribution to the humanity. Like all great men in the annuls of history, he was a man of paradoxes, contradictions, prejudices, peculiarities but against these human frailties, he was standing as a colossus in the political arena of the 20th century with his infinite goodness, as the seeker of truth, as the follower of non-violence and tolerance and as the harvester of the greatest gift of mankind, love. Gandhiji had sharpened his moral weapon of non-violence against in India and successfully driven them out through his strangest peaceful revolution. For this purpose, he had honed his people through the organized and disciplined campaign of non-violent civil disobedience against the guns, bayonets and lathi sticks of rulers.

It is really strangest revolution for the people of the other countries. How can change the mindset of the enemies through a peaceful, unarmed and passive resistance? William L. Shirer said, “Our time had never seen anyone like him: a charismatic leader who had aroused a whole continent and indeed the consciousness of the world; a shrewd, tough politician, but also a deeply religious man, a Christ like figure in homespun loincloth, who lived humbly in poverty, practised what he preached and who was regarded by tens of millions of his people as a saint.”

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Gandhiji was an orthodox Hindu in his way of living but he had actually followed the moral principle of Christ in his spiritual life. He was the stronger follower of Christ than rulers. He may be the first politician in the world to apply the moral principles of the Gospel of Matthew.

“You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your heavenly Father.” Gandhiji had successfully implemented the moral weapon of unarmed resistance in his freedom struggle. His moral strategy was suited to the Indian masses. Because Indians basic nature is tolerant and non-violent. A sheep cannot behave like a tiger. His democratic unarmed resistance against rule had brought miracle in the history like an anti-biotic to the body of the subcontinent. His strategy and logic was impeccable. He said, “The want us to put the struggle on the plane of machine guns where they have the weapons and we do not. Our only assurance of beating them is putting the struggle on a plane where we have weapons and they have not.”

Gandhiji always spoke very calmly and without any bitterness against the lawless repression of the enemies. had practised many barbarities on the Indians and also imprisoned him without any legal prosecution. He never showed any slightest trace of bitterness against the English men. Jallianwalla Bagh massacre in 1919 had again convinced Gandhiji about the mighty power of and need to prepare his organization and the people of India in line with non-violent disobedience. He said, “It gives you an idea of the atrocities perpetrated on the people of the Punjab. It shows you to what length government is capable of going, and what inhumanities and barbarities it is capable of perpetrating in order to maintain its power.” Gandhiji did not want to pull his people towards the calamity of death. He had passionately loved his country and countrymen.

Gandhiji was very hopeful and had full confidence in solving the socio-economic problems, communal problems between Hindus and Muslims and also the problems of the millions of depressed classes. He strongly believed that truth, tolerance and love could amicably resolve all the internal problems when Indians become the masters of their own land. In a question to William L Shirer, Gandhi said, “All these problems will be fairly easy to settle when we are our own masters. I know there will be difficulties, but I have faith in our ultimate capacity to solve them and not by following your Western models but by evolving along the lines of non-violence and truth, on which our movement is based and which must constitute the bedrock of our future constitution.” Gandhiji’s philosophy was panacea in the independent movement and also could be panacea to post-independent India. But his unexpected assassination had put the whole country into the darkness. Therefore, then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru in his extempore broadcast on All India Radio announcing the news of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on 30 January 1948 in a choked voice with deep grief. “The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. Our beloved leader … the father of our nation, is no more.”

Mahatma Gandhi was the light, life and truth to the India. His intellectual courage and radiance were always reflected in his words. In 1922, he was convicted under section 124-A of Indian Penal Code with sedition charges. At the time of the prosecution, he was asked to make a statement by the English judge. He proved himself as a true patriot, true prophet of truth and non-violence and true lawyer to defend his country and countrymen and accepting the sedition charges obediently and made strongest statement in the court. His statement had reflected the intellectual radiance of Mahatma Gandhi and also reflected his truthful understanding and courageous expression. “The law itself in this country has been used to serve the foreign exploiter. My unbiased examination of the Punjab Martial Law cases has led me to believe that at least ninety-five per cent convictions were wholly bad. My experience of political cases in India leads me to the conclusion that in nine out of every ten the condemned men were totally innocent. Their crime consisted in the love of their country. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, justice has been denied to Indians as against Europeans in the courts of India. This is not an exaggerated picture. It is the experience of almost every Indian who has had anything to do with such cases. In my own opinion, the administration of law is thus prostituted consciously or unconsciously for the benefit of the exploiter… Section 124-A, under which I am happily charged, is perhaps the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen. Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law. If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite to violence. But the section under which I am charged is one under which mere promotion of disaffection is a crime. I have studied some of the cases under it, and I know that some of the most loved of India’s patriots have been convicted under it. I consider it a privilege, therefore, to be charged under that section. I have endeavoured to give in their briefest outline the reasons for my disaffection. I have no personal ill-will against any single administrator, much less can I have any disaffection toward the King’s persons. But I hold it to be a virtue to be disaffected toward a government which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system.”

Gandhi’s integrity, nobility and overall greatness had reflected in his arguments in the court. He was not fighting against the English men in individual level but he was fiercely fighting against imperialism. He was absolutely fighting against system but he was loving the English persons in system.

Gandhiji’s genius was noticed by the people in the 45th annual convention of the Indian National Congress at Karachi in 1931. While drafting the resolution for the congress in collaboration with Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru had seen in Gandhi a political genius at his best. Karachi congress had witnessed his marvellous spirit of leadership and magnificent control over the masses. He was the chief architect of the resolution for the convention in which he had earmarked the concept of the future constitution of the independent India. The congress adopted this resolution on fundamental rights and economic policy. This resolution on fundamental rights passed by the Karachi session of congress had many socialistic provisions. The resolution was the product of heart to heart talk between the Gandhi and Nehru. Karachi resolution had definitely influenced the Constituent Assembly in drawing up the Indian Constitution. It was envisaged the spirit of the independent India’s constitution. He was not only the father of the nation but also he was really the father of the Indian Constitution.

Gandhiji in his continuous meetings with other leaders of the minorities and depressed classes pleaded before them to submerge their differences and unitedly demand the freedom from. As the staunch follower of tolerance, he strongly believed that the internal differences could be settled either by an impartial tribunal or by a special convention of Indian leaders elected by their constituencies. He made his last appeal to the infighting countrymen.

“It is absurd for us to quarrel among ourselves before we know what we are going to get from government. If we knew definitely that we were going to get what we want, then we would hesitate fifty times before we threw it away in a sinful wrangle. The communal solution can be the crown of the national constitution, not its foundation, if only because our differences are hardened by reason of foreign domination. I have no shadow of doubt that the iceberg of communal differences would melt under the warmth of the sun of freedom.”

Lord Mountbatten offered liberation package with a dividing idea. Gandhiji warned him, “You’ll have to divide my body before you divide India.” The ageing leader in his 78 age felt severe isolation politically and emotionally. His close aides like Patel and Nehru also proved more practical in their approach and renounced their master. With this isolated situation Gandhiji said, “I find myself alone, even Patel and Nehru think I’m wrong…They wonder if I have not deteriorated with age, May be they are right and I alone am floundering in darkness.”

At the stroke of midnight on August 14, 1947, when Prime Minister, Nehru from the Red Fort proclaimed India’s independence and the whole nation was in great celebration, Gandhi slept in a slum in Calcutta. He was silent in the next day and spent most of his time in prayer. He made no public statement. It was a great tragedy in his life and also in the life of this nation. He was disheartened, saddened and humiliated by his own people. He had lived, worked and taught the people for non-violence, truth, tolerance and love. He had seen in his period the failure his principles and failed to take root among his own countrymen.

William L. Shirer recorded this tragedy, “He was utterly crushed by the terrible bloodshed that swept India, just as self-government was won, provoked this time not by but by the savage quarrels of his fellow Indians. Fleeing by the millions across the new boundaries, the Muslims from India, the Hindus from Pakistan, a half million of them had been slain in cold blood before they could reach safely. Desperately and with heavy heart, and at the risk of his life, Gandhiji had gone among them, into the blood socked streets of Calcutta and the lanes of smaller towns and villages, littered with corpses and the debris of burning buildings, and beseeched them to stop the slaughter. He had fasted twice to induce the Hindus and the Muslims to make peace. But, except for temporary truces that were quickly broken, too little avail. All his lifelong teaching and practice of non-violence, which had been so successful in the struggle against, had come to nought. The realization that it had failed to keep his fellow Indians from flying at one another’s throats the moment they were free from shattered him.” For 78 year old Gandhi, it was a great shock and bewilderment to his philosophy of non-violence, truth, tolerance and love.

Gandhiji was betrayed by his own countrymen and he was assassinated by his own religious man. His assassin had successfully silenced Gandhi physically with three bullets. But bullets cannot destroy his truth, non-violence and tolerance. His spirit of principles will shine for centuries to come. It was illumined the life of great men like Nelson Mandela in South Africa and Martin Luther King in United States of America and peace loving millions of the world. Gandhiji’s martyrdom itself is caused to resurrect his principles and shine all over the world in eternity. Thus, his position as an apostle of truth, non-violence and tolerance in the political arena of 20th century is in its zenith.

Works Cited

  • Copley, Antony, Gandhi against the Tide, 1987, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
  • Kapoor, Virender, Leadership the Gandhi Way, 2014, Rupa & Co, New Delhi.
  • Kasturi, Bhashyam, Walking Alone Gandhi and India’s Partition, 2007, Vision Books, New Delhi.
  • Rao, U.R., Prabhu, R.K., The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, 1967, Navajivan Trust, Ahmadabad.
  • Shirer, William L., Gandhi A Memoir, 1993, Rupa & Co, New Delhi.

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ARTICLES : Peace, Nonviolence, Conflict Resolution

Read articles written by very well-known personalities and eminent authors about their views on gandhi, gandhi's works, gandhian philosophy of peace, nonviolence and conflict resolution..

  • Articles on Gandhi
  • TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • Peace, Nonviolence, Conflict Resolution : Gandhi's Philosophy of Nonviolence

Gandhi Meditating

Peace, Nonviolence, Conflict Resolution

  • Nonviolence and Multilateral Diplomacy
  • Ahimsa: Its Theory and Practice in Gandhism
  • Non-violent Resistance and Satyagraha as Alternatives to War - The Nazi Case
  • Thanatos, Terror and Tolerance: An Analysis of Terror Management Theory and a Possible Contribution by Gandhi
  • Yoga as a Tool in Peace Education
  • Forgiveness and Conflict Resolution

Gandhi's Philosophy of Nonviolence

  • Global Nonviolence Network
  • Violence And Its Dimensions
  • Youth, Nonviolence And Gandhi
  • Nonviolent Action: Some Dilemmas
  • The Meaning of Nonviolence
  • India And The Anglo-Boer War
  • Gandhi's Vision of Peace
  • Gandhi's Greatest Weapon
  • Conflict Resolution: The Gandhian Approach
  • Kingian Nonviolence : A Practical Application in Policing
  • Pilgrimage To Nonviolence
  • Peace Paradigms: Five Approaches To Peace
  • Interpersonal Conflict
  • Moral Equivalent of War As A Conflict Resolution
  • Conflict, Violence And Education
  • The Emerging Role of NGOs in Conflict Resolution
  • Role of Academics in Conflict Resolution
  • The Role of Civil Society in Conflict Resolution
  • Martin Luther King's Nonviolent Struggle And Its Relevance To Asia
  • Terrorism: Counter Violence is Not the Answer
  • Gandhi's Vision and Technique of Conflict Resolution
  • Three Case Studies of Nonviolence
  • How Nonviolence Works
  • The Courage of Nonviolence
  • Conflict Resolution and Peace Possibilities in the Gandhian Perspective
  • An Approach To Conflict Resolution
  • Non-violence: Neither A Beginning Nor An End
  • Peacemaking According To Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.
  • The Truth About Truth Force
  • The Development of A Culture of Peace Through Elementary Schools in Canada
  • Gandhi, Christianity And Ahimsa
  • Issues In Culture of Peace And Non-violence
  • Solution of Violence Through Love
  • Developing A Culture of Peace And Non-Violence Through Education
  • Nonviolence And Western Sociological And Political Thought
  • Gandhi After 9/11: Terrorism, Violence And The Other
  • Conflict Resolution & Peace: A Gandhian Perspective
  • A Gandhian Approach To International Security
  • Address To the Nation: Mahatma Gandhi Writes on 26 January 2009
  • Truth & Non-violence: Gandhiji's Tenets for Passive Resistance
  • The Experiments of Gandhi: Nonviolence in the Nuclear Age
  • Terrorism And Gandhian Non-violence
  • Reborn in Riyadh
  • Satyagraha As A Peaceful Method of Conflict Resolution
  • Non-violence : A Force for Radical Change
  • Peace Approach : From Gandhi to Galtung and Beyond
  • Gandhian Approach to Peace and Non-violence
  • Locating Education for Peace in Gandhian Thought

Further Reading

(Complete Book available online)

  • Conflict Resolution And Gandhian Ethics - By Thomas Weber
  • A Contemporary Interpretation of Ahimsa
  • The Tradition of Nonviolence and its Underlying Forces
  • A Study of the Meanings of Nonviolence
  • Notes on the Theory of Nonviolence
  • Nonviolence as a Positive Concept
  • Experimentation in Nonviolence: The Next Phase
  • The Best Solver of Conflicts
  • War and What Price Freedom
  • A Coordinated Approach to Disarmament
  • A Disarmament Adequate to Our Times
  • The Impact of Gandhi on the U.S. Peace Movement
  • The Grass-roots of World Peace
  • Is There a Nonviolent Road to a Peaceful World?
  • Nuclear Explosions and World Peace
  • Aspects of Nonviolence in American Culture
  • The Gandhian Way and Nuclear War
  • A Nonviolent International Authority

Extrernal Links

  • Gandhi, The Jews And Palestine A Collection of Articles, Speeches, Letters and Interviews Compiled by: E. S. Reddy
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." 1 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." 2 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 formsof 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... 3 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." 4 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. 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." 5 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." 6 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." 7 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. As the world's pioneer in nonviolent theory and practice, Gandhi unequivocally stated that nonviolence contained a universal applicability. In his letter to Daniel Oliver in Hammana Lebanon on the 11th of 1937 Gandhi used these words: " I have no message to give except this that there is no deliverance for any people on this earth or for all the people of this earth except through truth and nonviolence in every walk of life without any exceptions." 8 In this passage, Gandhi promises "deliverance" through nonviolence for oppressed peoples without exception. Speaking primarily with regards to nonviolence as a libratory philosophy in this passage, Gandhi emphasizes the power of nonviolence to emancipate spiritually and physically. It is a science and of its own can lead one to pure democracy. Satyagraha, the Centre of Gandhi's Contribution to the Philosophy of Nonviolence It will be good here to examine what Stanley E. Jones calls "the centre of Gandhi's contribution to the world". All else is marginal compared to it. Satyagraha is the quintessence of Gandhism. Through it, Gandhi introduced a new spirit to the world. It is the greatest of all Gandhi's contribution to the world. What is Satyagraha? Satyagraha (pronounced sat-YAH-graha) is a compound of two Sanskrit nouns satya, meaning truth (from 'sat'- 'being' with a suffix 'ya'), and agraha, meaning, "firm grasping" (a noun made from the agra, which has its root 'grah'- 'seize', 'grasp', with the verbal prefix 'a' – 'to' 'towards). Thus Satyagraha literally means devotion to truth, remaining firm on the truth and resisting untruth actively but nonviolently. Since the only way for Gandhi getting to the truth is by nonviolence (love), it follows that Satyagraha implies an unwavering search for the truth using nonviolence. Satyagraha according to Michael Nagler literally means 'clinging to truth,' and that was exactly how Gandhi understood it: "clinging to the truth that we are all one under the skin, that there is no such thing as a 'win/lose' confrontation because all our important interests are really the same, that consciously or not every single person wants unity and peace with every other" 9 Put succinctly, Satyagraha means 'truth force' , 'soul force' or as Martin Luther Jr would call it 'love in action.' Satyagraha has often been defined as the philosophy of nonviolent resistance most famously employed by Mahatma Gandhi, in forcing an end to the British domination. Gene Sharp did not hesitate to define Satyagraha simply as "Gandhian Nonviolence." 10 Today as Nagler would say, when we use the word Satyagraha we sometimes mean that general principle, the fact that love is stronger than hate (and we can learn to use it to overcome hate), and sometimes we mean more specifically active resistance by a repressed group; sometimes, even more specifically, we apply the term to a given movement like Salt Satyagraha etc. It is worthwhile looking at the way Gandhi uses Satyagraha. Gandhi View of Satyagraha Satyagraha was not a preconceived plan for Gandhi. Event in his life culminating in his "Bramacharya vow", 11 prepared him for it. He therefore underlined: Events were so shaping themselves in Johannesburg as to make this self-purification 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. 12 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 self-sacrifice. 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. It has some basic precepts treated below. The Basic Precepts of Satyagraha There are three basic precepts essential to Satyagraha: Truth, Nonviolence and self-suffering. These are called the pillars of Satyagraha. Failure to grasp them is a handicap to the understanding of Gandhi's non –violence. These three fundamentals correspond to Sanskrit terms: Sat/Satya – Truth implying openness, honesty and fairness Ahimsa/Nonviolence – refusal to inflict injury upon others. Tapasya – willingness to self-sacrifice. These fundamental concepts are elaborated below. 1.Satya/Truth: Satyagraha as stated before literally means truth force. Truth is relative. Man is not capable of knowing the absolute truth. Satyagraha implies working steadily towards a discovery of the absolute truth and converting the opponent into a trend in the working process. What a person sees as truth may just as clearly be untrue for another. Gandhi made his life a numerous experiments with truth. In holding to the truth, he claims to be making a ceaseless effort to find it. Gandhi's conception of truth is deeply rooted in Hinduism. The emphasis of Satya-truth is paramount in the writings of the Indian philosophers. "Satyannasti Parodharmati (Satyan Nasti Paro Dharma Ti) – there is no religion or duty greater than truth", holds a prominent place in Hinduism. Reaching pure and absolute truth is attaining moksha. Gandhi holds that truth is God, and maintains that it is an integral part of Satyagraha. He explains it thus: The world rests upon the bedrock of satya or truth; asatya meaning untruth also means "nonexistent" and satya or truth, means that which is of untruth does not so much exist. Its victory is out of the question. And truth being "that which is" can never be destroyed. This is the doctrine of Satyagraha in a nutshell. 13 2.Ahimsa: In Gandhi's Satyagraha, truth is inseparable from Ahimsa. Ahimsa expresses as ancient Hindu, Jain and Buddhist ethical precept. The negative prefix 'a' plus himsa meaning injury make up the world normally translated 'nonviolence'. The term Ahimsa appears in Hindu teachings as early as the Chandoya Upanishad. The Jain Religion constitutes Ahimsa as the first vow. It is a cardinal virtue in Buddhism. Despite its being rooted in these Religions, the special contribution of Gandhi was: To make the concept of Ahimsa meaningful in the social and political spheres by moulding tools for nonviolent action to use as a positive force in the search for social and political truths. Gandhi formed Ahimsa into the active social technique, which was to challenge political authorities and religious orthodoxy. 14 It is worth noting that this 'active social technique which was to challenge political authorities', used by Gandhi is none other than Satyagraha. Truly enough, the Indian milieu was already infused with notions of Ahimsa. Nevertheless, Gandhi acknowledged that it was an essential part of his experiments with the truth whose technique of action he called Satyagraha. At the root of Satya and Ahimsa is love. While making discourses on the Bhagavad-Gita, an author says: Truth, peace, righteousness and nonviolence, Satya, Shanti, Dharma and Ahimsa, do not exist separately. They are all essentially dependent on love. When love enters the thoughts it becomes truth. When it manifests itself in the form of action it becomes truth. When Love manifests itself in the form of action it becomes Dharma or righteousness. When your feelings become saturated with love you become peace itself. The very meaning of the word peace is love. When you fill your understanding with love it is Ahimsa. Practicing love is Dharma, thinking of love is Satya, feeling love is Shanti, and understanding love is Ahimsa. For all these values it is love which flows as the undercurrent. 15 3.;Tapasya (Self-Suffering); it remains a truism that the classical yogic laws of self-restraint and self-discipline are familiar elements in Indian culture. Self-suffering in Satyagraha is a test of love. It is detected first of all towards the much persuasion of one whom is undertaken. Gandhi distinguished self-suffering from cowardice. Gandhi's choice of self-suffering does not mean that he valued life low. It is rather a sign of voluntary help and it is noble and morally enriching. He himself says; It is not because I value life lo I can countenance with joy Thousands voluntary losing their lives for Satyagraha, but because I know that it results in the long run in the least loss of life, and what is more, it ennobles those who lose their lives and morally enriches the world for their sacrifice. 16 Satyagraha is at its best when preached and practiced by those who would use arms but decided instead to invite suffering upon them. It is not easy for a western mind or nonoriental philosopher to understand this issue of self-suffering. In fact, in Satyagraha, the element of self-suffering is perhaps the least acceptable to a western mind. Yet such sacrifice may well provide the ultimate means of realizing that characteristic so eminent in Christian religion and western moral philosophy: The dignity of the individual. The three elements: Satya, Ahimsa, Tapasya must move together for the success of any Satyagraha campaign. It follows that Ahimsa – which implies love, leads in turn to social service. Truth leads to an ethical humanism. Self-suffering not for its own sake, but for the demonstration of sincerity flowing from refusal to injure the opponent while at the same time holding to the truth, implies sacrifice and preparation for sacrifice even to death. 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." 17 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 socio-political 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 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." 18 Qualities of a Satyagrahi (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. 19 Murphy and Russell do not accept Gandhi's doctrine totally. Michael Nagler insists that they ignore Constructive Programme, which Gandhi considered paramount. A better understanding of Gandhi's nonviolence will be seen in the next chapter.

  • M. SHEPARD, Mahatma Gandhi and his Myths, Civil Disobedience, Nonviolence and Satyagraha in the Real World, Los Angeles,
  • Shepard Publications, 2002, http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/books/myths.html
  • M. K. GANDHI, All Men Are Brothers, Autobiographical Reflections, Krishna Kripalani (ed.), New York; The Continuum Publishing Company, 1990, vii.
  • M. K. GANDHI, Young India, 22-11-1928, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. xxxviii, Ahmedabad; Navajivan Trust, 1970, 69.
  • M. K. GANDHI, Young India, 20-12-1928, in ibidem, 247.
  • The New Zion’s Herald, July/August 2001, vol. 175, issue 4, 17.
  • M. K. GANDHI, An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments With truth, Ahmedabad; Navajivan Trust, 2003, 254.
  • NIRMAL KUMAR BOSE, Selections from Gandhi, Ahmedabad; Navajivan Trust, 1948,154.
  • Mahatma Gandhi, Judith M. Brown, The Essential Writings, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, 20. Also in Pyarelal Papers, EWMG, 60.
  • Michael N. Nagler, Hope or Terror? Minneapolis, METTA Center for Nonviolence Education, 2009, p. 7.
  • T. WEBER and R. J. Burrowes, Nonviolence, An Introduction, http://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/seasia
  • Bramacharya Simply means Celibacy, Chastity.
  • M. K. GANDHI, An Autobiography, 292.
  • S. E. JONES, Gandhi, Portrayal of a Friend, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1948, 82.
  • J. V. BONDURANT, Conquest of Violence, The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict. Los Angeles; University of California Press, 1965, 112.
  • BHAGAVAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA, Discourses on the Bhagavad-Gita, Andhra Pradesh; Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, 1988, 51-52.
  • M. K. GANDHI, Nonviolence in Peace and War,(2nd ed.) Ahmedadad, Navijivan Trust, 1944, 49.
  • L. FISCHER. Gandhi; His life and Message For the World, New York Mentor Books, 1954, 35.
  • S. E. JONES, Gandhi, Portrayal of a Friend, 108.
  • B. RUSSELL, Mahatma Gandhi, Boston, Atlantic Monthly, December 1952, 23.
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Gandhian Concept of Truth and Non-Violence

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The 153rd Anniversary of the birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is as much a cause for celebration as for reflection on the future of this globe we inhabit. The global spurt in the incidence of violence, intolerance, and hatred in the twenty-first century has given rise to vast cultural and moral chaos. This phenomenon has its roots in the sad demise of humanitarianism and the concomitant history of moral decomposition the world over. At this crucial juncture, Gandhi’s worldview invariably activates the moral impulse towards building a nonviolent social order. Gandhi’s worldview in its pristine form represents an idea of an accommodative truth built not merely on mutual tolerance but on acceptance of the other as an equal and dignified soul. Gandhi’s life journey evolved through experiments for building a humane society based upon the troika of truth, nonviolence, and satyagraha. This paper aims to deliberate upon Gandhi’s worldview grounded in his moral philosophy of satyagraha and show how it can work as an effective countervailing tool and method to understand the growing culture and discourse of violence today.

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The present paper discusses the philosophy of ‘nonviolence’ (ahimsa) of Mahatma Gandhi, which he devised as a weapon to fight the brute forces of violence and hatred, hailing it as the only way to peace. Gandhi based his philosophy of nonviolence on the principle of love for all and hatred for none. He thought violence as an act caused to a person directly or indirectly, denying him his legitimate rights in the society by force, injury or deception. Gandhi’s nonviolence means avoiding violent means to achieve one’s end, howsoever, lofty it might be, as he firmly believed that the use of violence, even if in the name of achieving a justifiable end was not good, as it would bring more violence. He firmly adhered to the philosophy of Gita that preaches to follow the rightful path, remaining oblivious of its outcome. Gandhi used nonviolence in both his personal and political life and used it first in South Africa effectively and back home he applied it in India against the British with far more astounding success, as it proved supremely useful and efficacious in liberating the country from the British servitude. However, he never tried to use it as a political tactic to embarrass the opponent or to take undue

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Political and social movements in South Africa, the United States of America, Germany, Myanmar, India, and elsewhere, have drawn inspiration from the non-violent political techniques advocated by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi during his leadership of the anti-colonial struggle for Indian freedom from British colonial rule. This course charts a global history of Gandhi's thought about non-violence and its expression in civil disobedience and resistance movements both in India and the world. Organized in three modules, the first situates Gandhi through consideration of the diverse sources of his own historical and ideological formation; the second examines the historical contexts and practices through which non-violence acquired meaning for him and considers important critiques; the third explores the various afterlives of Gandhian politics in movements throughout the world. We will examine autobiography and biography, Gandhi's collected works, various types of primary source, political, social, and intellectual history, and audiovisual materials. In addition to widely disseminated narratives of Gandhi as a symbol of non-violence, the course will closely attend to the deep contradictions concerning race, caste, gender, and class that characterized his thought and action. By unsettling conventional accounts of his significance, we will grapple with the problem of how to make sense of his troubled legacy.

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Essay on Non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi

essay competition on truth and non violence

Non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhiji came on this earth with his message of truth and non-violence (ahimsa) at a time when the forces of aggression and violence reigned supreme on earth. Mahatma Gandhi taught us what Christ and Buddha had longed to teach long ago. He became an immortal spirit who guides us through the path of peace and non-violence.

Gandhiji was born in a middle class orthodox Hindu family of Gujarat, at Rajkot. Having received his early education in India, he went to London where he qualified himself as a barrister-at-law.

Ahimsa or Non-violence: Mahatma Gandhi was the exponent of the cult of Ahimsa or Non-violence. Like the Buddha, Christ and Chaitanya he too believed in the ultimate victory of Non-violence over violence.

Force or violence, according to him, is madness which cannot sustain. ‘So ultimately force or violence will bow down before non-violence’. He had waged war not only against British imperialism; rather he declared war on all the forces of unrighteousness, untruth and injustice, all the world over.

Gandhi in South Africa: Having tried his luck in India, as a barrister, Gandhiji went to south Africa, were he set up a substantially sound legal practice. But soon he left practice and got himself engaged in social and political reformation. It was then that the racialism in South Africa was at its climax. The non-Whites were subject to worst form of torture. Gandhiji protested against this wrong attitude of the White government towards the Black peoples of Africa.

Gandhi demonstrated acts of truth and non-violence in South Africa. The non-violent protest of Gandhi got huge popularity. It was here that he cultivated in him the idea of ‘Satyagraha’, which he was to put into practice afterwards, both in South Africa and India. In South Africa, Gandhiji endeavored hard to secure for the colored people, including Indians who were domiciled there, equal rights with the White People. In this context he had to court imprisonment several times.

Also read: Gandhian Philosophy on Truth and Non-violence (Ahimsa)

Gandhi arrived India: After arriving India, Mahatma Gandhi joined the Indian National congress, which was at that time more or less a social institution. He made Congress an organization, which was to play its vital role in the winning of the country’s independence. Before he joined the Congress and took its reins in his hands, it was predominantly an organization of the Upper Middle Class people.

Mahatma Gandhi changed it into a mass-organization, in which the peasants began to take an active part. He firmly believed that freedom can be achieved in a peaceful manner. He wanted all his followers to always maintain truth and integrity. The principles of Ahimsa was practiced in all of the independence movements launched by Mahatma Gandhi.

The Non-cooperation movement got massive support and became the popular non-violence movement. The Indians were requested to avoid using imported goods.

The Civil disobedience movement was a non-violent resistance against the British tax regime.

On 8th August, 1942, Mahatma Gandhi called for immediate independence and launched the Quit India Movement. It remains an important event in the history of India independence.

Religious views: He studied Bhagwad Gita, the Holy Quran and the bible. ‘I see the same God in Gita whom I see in the Bible or whom I want to see in the Quran’. According to him, the best religion of the world is one which contains the best elements of all the creeds of the world.

His religion was peace and non-violence. His sword and the shield, both were love which was based upon non-violence and truth.

Conclusion: Gandhiji was an angelic being, a source of inspiration to his people. He was a messiah for the tortured and oppressed humanity. He is a spirit of non-violence, peace and love.

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Truth and non-violence: a foundation of a new world order.

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Truth and Non-Violence: A Foundation of a New World Order!

The ultimate objective of any society is to produce essential goods and to distribute them by following a just and an egalitarian procedure. Various institutions of any society could use different means for this purpose. Culture of a society depends on the nature of these means.

If these means are truthful, just and healthy, then the society emerged would surely be a constructive one. It reflects that only an ideal means would lead to an ideal society. Therefore, truth and non-violence are playing an utmost important role in Gandhian philosophy.

Based on the principles of truth and non-violence, what kind of a New World Order would emerge there? The article gives an extensive illustration on that. For that purpose it is divided into two parts while the first part deals with the basic principles of truth and non-violence, the second part describes nature of politics, economics, religion, education and position of women in this new world order.

Truth and Non-Violence in Gandhian Philosophy :

Truth and non-violence have been two foundational stones of Gandhian philosophy. Truth is the end and non-violence is the means to achieve this end. These are the two guiding principles for Gandhi. His whole life was devoted to these two principles.

To analysis the principle of truth in Gandhian philosophy, we can have three perspectives:

i. Etymological perspective,

ii. Religious perspective, and

iii. Moral perspective.

Let us start with the ethnological perspective. It is concerned with the origin of the meaning of the term truth, i.e., satya. The word ‘sat’ is employed in the sense of reality, goodness or praiseworthy action. Steadfastness in sacrifice, penance, and gift are also called sat, and so many actions for such purpose are called sat.

Whatever offering or gift is made, whatever rite is observed, without faith, is called asset. From the etymological perspective, what really is, what really can be said, and what really is to be done, in this worldly life, is called satya. Since, only truth is real, for Gandhi, it must be the ultimate objective of our life.

Accordingly:

Devotion to this truth is the sole justification for our existence. All our activities should be very breath of our being. When once this state in the pilgrims’ process is reached, all other rules of correct living will come without effort and obedience to them will be instructive. There should be Truth in thought. Truth in speech and Truth in action. To a man who has realized this truth in its fullness, nothing else remains to be known because all knowledge is neces­sarily included in it.

For Gandhi, essence of life lies in its simplicity and truth is the instrument, the medium to achieve it. An individual’s all small or big efforts are directed by truth only. As this is the truth, which will make an individual truthful in real sense of the term. Upanishads also correspond closely to these ideas. According to Mundaka Upanishad, “Truth prevails and not untruth”. Similarly, Taittiriya Upanishad says, “Speak the truth, observe duty, do not swerve from truth”.

The Gandhian conception of truth was equally influenced by all these ancient Indian religious-cum-philosophical writings. Truth­fulness is the only way which makes the seeker after truth a truthful person. Because truth is the ultimate knowledge, if we once learn how to apply this never-failing test of truth, we will at once be able to find out what is worth reading. Thus, etymologically only truth exists. To attain this truth is the ultimate objective of our life.

The real essence of life resides in this truth only. One who realizes this truth, nothing remains to be known because truth is the ultimate ruling authority. But one may raise this question: what is the inherent meaning of this truth? In which form we should accept it and how to obtain it? The religious perspective will satisfy all these queries in its fullest sense.

All our religious texts, scriptures, institutions and teachers accept only one existence on this earth and that is of God. Thus, if truth means sense of being or to be existed, then obviously it means God. For Gandhi, “to realize God, to realize the self and to realize truth are three experiences for the same development.” In his earlier days, Gandhi used to say that God is truth. It means to know about truth, one has to know God first.

For Gandhi:

God is self existent all knowing living force, which inheres every other force known to the world. God is even more intangible then other. He is both imminent and transcendent. In Gandhian philosophy the idea of God is explained from scien­tific, moral and philosophic perspectives.

Like a scientist, who usually propounds his thoughts on the basis of cause and effect relationship, Gandhi too explains if our beings are there along with our fathers and grandfathers then we are bound to accept this truth that there does also exist the father of the whole universe.

He again illustrates that there is a system in this world through which the whole universe of living beings is regulated. This system cannot be an abstract and immortal because abstract laws would not be applicable on living beings. And this law and system is nothing but the God himself. He himself is the law and the regulator of those laws.

According to Gandhi:

I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing all that change a living power that is changeless, that hold all together that creates, dissolves and regrets. This informing power and spirit is God. And since nothing else I see merely alone is.

And is this power benevolent or malevolent? See it as purely benevolent, for I can see in the midst of untruth, truth persists, in the midst of darkness, light persists. Hence, I gather that God is life, Truth and Light. He is love. He is the Supreme God.

In this manner, as a scientist, Gandhi tries his best to define the concept of God within the criteria of universally accepted definition by keeping aside all community, religion, time and space based definitions. But, it does not mean that universal-scientific-rational definition of God in Gandhian philosophy ignores the importance of individual­istic perspective. Gandhian philosophy even sees the God from moral perspective.

There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifesta­tions are innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and are for a moment stun me. But I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found him, but I am seeking after him.

Accordingly, God can be seen from different perspectives. Even for theists its existence is there. “You may call yourself an atheist, but so long as you feel akin with mankind you accept God in practice. While defining God, sometimes, Gandhi also feels like oppor­tunist thinkers.

But Gandhi himself explains the reason in the following manner:

God is the indefinable something that we shall follow but do not know. To me God is Truth and Love; God is ethics and morality; God is fearlessness. God is source of light and life and yet He is above and beyond all these. God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist … he embodies to those who need His touch.

He is purest essence. He simply is to those who have faith. He is all things to all man. He is in us and yet above and beyond us … He is long suffering. He is patient but He is also terrible … with Him ignorance is no essence. And withal He is ever forgiving for He always given us the chances to repent.

He is the greatest democrat the world knows, for He leaves us ‘unfettered’ to make our choice between evil and good. He is the greatest tyrant ever known, for He often dashes the cup from our lips and under the cover of the freewill leaves us a margin so wholly inadequate as to provide only mirth to himself… Therefore, Hinduism calls it all His sport.

Thus, like a spiritual thinker, Gandhi assumes God as knowledge, love, compassion, inner-consciousness, logic-reason etc. Not only this, but for him the reason and logical perception of atheists is also another form of God. And, ultimately, he said, “If it is possible for the human tongue to give the fullest description of God, I have come to the conclusion that for myself, God is Truth.” It shows that for Gandhi God can be defined from individualistic, pluralistic and in so many different universalistic perspectives.

Bhikhu Parekh, in his Gandhi’s Political Philosophy:

A Critical Examination says that earlier Gandhi used the term ‘Brahman’. But he was somewhat uneasy with its historical association and preferred to use such terms as eternal principle, supreme consciousness or intelli­gence, mysterious force and cosmic power, spirit or shakti.

Later, he preferred to call it satya or truth and thought that this was its only correct and fully significant description. Following Indian philo­sophical tradition, Gandhi used the term ‘satya’ to mean the eternal and unchanging, what alone persists in the midst of change and holds the universe together. For a long time he said that “God is Truth”, implying both that truth was one of God’s many properties and that the concept of God was logically prior to that of truth. In 1926, he reversed the proposition and said that truth is God. He regarded this as one of his most important discoveries and thought that it crystal­lized his years of grouping.

The new proposition implied that the concept of truth was prior to that of God, and that calling it God did not add anything new to it but only made it more concrete and comprehensible to the human mind. By following the norms of the Indian thinkers, Gandhi intended to distinguish between the impersonal and personal God, and preferred to call the Nirguna Brahman. Since the term ‘truth’ is likely to create confusion I shall use the more familiar terms cosmic spirit or power.

For Gandhi, the Brahman, truth or cosmic spirit was nirguna, i.e., beyond all qualities, including the moral. As he put it, “Fundamentally, God is indescribable in words …. The qualities we attribute to God with the purest of motives are true for us but fundamentally false.” And again beyond the personal God there is formless essence which our reason cannot comprehend.

The formless essence or cosmic spirit was not a ‘personal being’, and to think that it was represented a mistaken and ‘inferior’ conception of its nature. Although the cosmic power was without qualities, including personality, Gandhi argued that a limited being as man found it difficult to avoid attributing them to and personalizing it.

First, the human mind was so used the world of qualities that it did not find it easy to think in non-qualitative terms.

Second, man was not only thinking but also a feeling being and the ‘head’ and ‘heart’ had different requirements.

The quality-free cosmic power satisfied the head but was too remote, abstract and detached to satisfy the heart. The heart required a being with heart, one who could understand and respond to the language of feeling.

Even by accepting the various definitions and perceptions of truth discussed as above, Gandhian philosophy also present a universal notion of truth. Accordingly, “what is Truth?” “A difficult question, but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the voice within tells you. How then, you ask different people think of different and contrary truth? Well, seeing that the human mind works through innumerable media and that the evolution of the human mind is not the same for all, it follows that what may be truth for one may be untruth for another, and hence those who have made their experiments have come to the conclusion that there are certain condition to be observed in making those experiments….

It is because we have at the present moment everybody claiming the right of conscience without going through any discipline what so-even that there is so much untruth being delivered to a bewildered world. All that I can do true humility present to you is that truth is not to be found by anybody who has not got an abundant sense of humility. If you would swim on the bosom of ocean of Truth you must reduce yourself to a zero.”

It means, for Gandhi, there is no guarantee that we find the truth in any matter. But a continued selfless devotion in search of truth will make the seeker aware of errors and thus lead him further towards truth. What may appear as truth to one person will often appear untruth to another person. But that need not worry the seeker. Where there is honest effort, it will be realized that what appears to be different truth is like the countless and apparently different leaves of the same tree.

Does Not God Himself appear to difficult individuals in different aspects? But truth is the right designation of God. Hence, there is nothing wrong in everyone following truth according to his light. Indeed, it is a duty to do so.

That is why, Gandhi, while presenting the solution, suggested that “the golden rule of conduct… is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall see Truth in fragment and from different angles of vision. Conscience is not the something for all. Whilst, therefore, it is a good guide for individual conduct, imposition of that conduct upon all will be an insufferable interference with everybody’s freedom of conscience.”

Thus, the etymological and ontological explanations reveal the physical and eternal meaning of truth. Now one may ask another question, how to achieve this truth which is both relative as well as absolute in nature. For Gandhi, life is the name of dialectics. Life persists in continuous experiments and consequent development. Absolute truth is the ultimate truth to be achieved. It is the eternal reality but it is not easy to achieve because human mind has its over limitations. Relative truth is the way towards absolute truth.

So long, according to Gandhi, “I must hold by the relative truth as I have conceived it. That relative truth must, meanwhile, be my beacon, my shield and buckler. Though this path is narrow and sharp as razor’s edge, for me, it has been the quickest and easiest. Even my Himalayan blunders have seemed trifling to me because I have kept strictly to this path. For the path has saved me from coming to grief, and I have gone forward according to my light.”

Two things are coming in mind at the same time. Firstly, it is only the continuous practice through which this absolute truth would be achieved. And secondly, the extent to which an individual is relating this absolute truth with his/her relative truth to that extent she/he will orient towards absolute truth.

That is why; this relative truth is different to different people. Therefore, Gandhi used to say that relative truth is the means to achieve the absolute truth. Thus, in Gandhian philosophy, we have both permanent and dynamic nature truth. Because, Gandhi never assumed that one’s truth is the ultimate truth.

Now we have knowledge about different meanings of truth, yet it is not easy to realize or internalize this truth in real sense of the term. Realization of truth is a continuous process for which moral values are essentially required to inculcate. Because for Gandhi “to realize God” is another expression for “to become God” and “to face God”.

Gandhi used to say, “I am but a seeker after truth. I claim to have found a way to it. I claim to be making a ceaseless effort to find it. But I admit that I have not yet found it. To find truth completely is to realize oneself and one’s destiny, to become perfect. I am painfully conscious of my imperfections and therein lies all the strength I possess, because it is a rare thing for a man to know his own limitations.

When the egotism-ego vanishes, something else grows that ingredient of the person that tends to identify itself with God, with humanity, all that lives. Therefore, once the reduction of one’s egotism self is complete, one comes face to face with God, find truth, and realizes the universal-self, the Self. The way of humanity is essentially the way of reducing egotism.

In Gandhian philosophy the concept of ‘self is considered from two perspectives: one is ‘universal self and second is ‘individual self. For Gandhian philosophy, the terms such as ‘the universal self can scarcely be given experimental meaning without resource of psychological and social processes of intense identification.

They cannot only be facilitated by the practice of yoga, but also by various kinds of voluntary social work as these are now carried out by dedicated people in many countries. According to Arne Naess, the recent development in psychiatry and psychology favouring reciprocity in the therapist-patient relation helps to make the identification easier.

There is an intimate relation between a belief in the ultimate oneness of all that lives and the belief that one cannot reach one’s own complete freedom without bringing about the freedom of others, or remove all feelings of pain without relieving the pain of others.

Gandhi says:

I do not believe … that an individual may gain spiritually and those who surround him suffer. I believe in advita (non-duality), I believe in the essentially unity of man and, for that matter, of all that lies. Therefore, I believe that if one man gain spiritually, the whole world gains with him and, if one man fall, the whole world fall to that extent.

Gandhi’s tendency towards collectivism and egalitarianism is beautifully expressed in the following words:

A drop torn from the ocean perishes without doing any good. If it remains a part of the ocean, it shares the glory of carrying on its bosom a fleet of mighty ships. And, an individual self, the seeker after truth, can become a universal self by putting himself last among his fellow creatures. Incul­cated moral values will impoverish a being in this way of becoming a universal being.

Hence, it can be said that truth is the sovereign principle. It is ultimate reality. It is the fundamental principle of all thought and action. Though it is ultimate and absolute by nature, even then, each and every living being can achieve it. A partial knowledge of this truth will never allow us to be perfect.

Hence, the different perspectives of truth in Gandhian philosophy, such as etymological perspective, religious perspective and moral perspective, try to give a complete meaning of truth. If etymological perspective believes in the existence of truth being the only reality, the religious perspective teaches the lesson that God is truth.

Whereas moral perspective says that God, love, compassion, motherhood etc. are the different shades of truth. Truth is the only universal principle which is prevailing everywhere. Moral perspective of truth encompasses all those different aspects of truth. A seeker after truth will never assume his truth as ultimate truth and thus will have respect for other’s truth also.

In this untruthful social order which is prevailing everywhere these days, Gandhi presents a very consistent, balanced, universally accepted definition of truth, which is the absolute reality and thus the ultimate goal of human life. It was the only purpose of all experiments which Gandhi did throughout his life. That is why, in his philosophy of ideal life, truth plays an important role.

Non-violence (Ahimsa):

For Gandhi, “It is practically impossible to disentangle Truth and non-violence. They are like the two sides of a coin, or rather of a smooth, unstamped metallic disc “who can say”, he asks “which is the observe, and which is the reverse.” Because of the fact, he says, “means and ends are convertible term in my philosophy of life. They say ends are after all everything. I would say, means are after all everything. As the means so the ends. There is no wall of separation between means and ends.

Indeed, the creator has given us control (and that to very limited) over means none over the ends. Realization of the goal is in exact proportion to that means. This is a proportion that admits of no expectations.” For Gandhi, to get the truth, ahimsa is the only instrument.

In his own words:

Ahimsa is my God. And Truth is my God. When I look for Ahimsa, Truth says find it out through me, when I look for Truth, Ahimsa says find it out through me. In fact, all the human values of a humanitarian society are inspired by the principle of ahimsa. In every religion, whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism, this principle of ahimsa has played a very important role. In Indian philosophical tradition, this has been surviving since times immemorial.

Chandopnishad, Patanjali Yoga Sutras, and in so many philosoph­ical-intellectual traditions of India, Ahimsa has a very important place. Similarly, in the Jain philosophy, Ahimsa is assumed to be a big vow. In Trithankar Mahavir Swami’s words, “Ahimsa is a highest religion which is regulated by tolerance and strict practice of self-discipline.”

According to Jainism, all religions are the different branches of the same tree. The ultimate objective of all religions is self-realization or self-actualization. For Mahavir Swami, if the principle of ahimsa is required for an individual to regulate his/her life, then socially it is required just to secure the social life.

Accordingly, we are all part of an ultimate superpower. Whatever the sufferings, agonies and the problems we are facing in our life are also there in other’s life. We should try to understand this reality and ahimsa will teach us the importance of life. That is why; ahimsa is also called as a very strict principle of life.

Even in Buddhist tradition ahimsa plays important and centrifugal role. It is said in this tradition that ahimsa implies not to give injury to anyone by speech and action. The follower of this principle will never create problem for anyone and not even encourage anyone else to do so. Because to give injury or to encourage anyone for injury both are recorded as himsa.

Hence, in the philosophies of life, which were evolved with the evolution of human civilization in Indian society, ahimsa plays a very important and vibrant role. Its concept and norms are continuously changing according to the societal changes.

The Gandhian philosophy has its own significance to establish the notion of ahimsa in the modem context. By keeping all these issues in mind, we can say that for Gandhi, ahimsa was the biggest dharma and highest form of morality. It is the purest means to attain the end, i.e., God and truth.

Gandhi used to say:

By instinct I have been truthful, but not non-violent … I was capable of sacrificing non-violence for the sake of truth. In fact, it was in the course of my pursuit of Truth that I discovered non-violence. Gandhi accepted that truth is the end and ahimsa is the means.

The concept of ahimsa in Gandhian philosophy can be explained from two perspectives:

i. Negative ahimsa, and

ii. Positive ahimsa.

Negative Ahimsa :

From the negative perspective ahimsa means ‘a’+’himsa’, which again means, absence of himsa. The word is correctively written: hinsa or hinsa, meaning harming, hurting, injuring, from the root hins, harm, hurt, injure, slay…. The word hin may in turn have been a form of the verbal root han, which has a large number of meanings: strike, smite, slay, kill, destroy, dispel (darkness) etc. These meanings seem on the whole to be more predominantly physical than those of himsa. It reflects, in general conception, ahimsa means avoiding injury to anything on earth in thought, word or deed. But in this absolute sense, the applicability of ahimsa is not possible at all. Even Gandhi accepted this.

Perfect non-violence is impossible so long as we exist physically, for we would want some space at least to occupy. Perfect non-violence whilst you are inhabiting the body is only a theory like Euclid’s point or straight line, but we have to endeavor every moment of our lives.

If we turn our eyes to the time of which history has any record down to our own time, we shall find that man has been steadily progressing towards ahimsa. Our remote ancestors were cannibals. Then came a time when they were fed up with cannibalism and began to live on chase. Next came a stage when man was ashamed of leading the life of a wandering hunter.

He, therefore, took to agriculture and depended principally on mother earth for his food. Thus, from being a nomad he settled down to civilized stable life, founded villages and towns and from member of a family he became member of a community and a nation. All these are signs of progressive ahimsa and diminishing himsa.

Had it been otherwise, the human species should have been extinct by now, even as many of the lower species have disappeared. Prophets and avatars have also taught the lesson of ahimsa more or less. Not one should it be otherwise? Himsa does not need to be taught. Man as animal is violent, but, as spirit is non-violent.

The moment he awakes to the spirit within, he cannot remain violent. Either he progresses towards ahimsa or rushes to his doom. That is why, the prophets and avatars have taught us the lessons of truth, harmony, brotherhood, justice, etc., which are all attributes of ahimsa. Thus, evidences of the history prove it very well that in our life some himsa is inevitably essential. It is not possible to lead a life without himsa. Therefore, Gandhi explained the difference between himsa and ahimsa in detail. Firstly, to sustain a life, some himsa is essentially required and that must be exempted.

In Gandhi’s words:

Taking life may be a duty. We do destroy as much life as we think necessary for sustaining our body. Thus, for food we take life, vegetable and other, and for health we destroy mosquitoes and the like by the use of disinfectants etc. and we do not think that we are guilty of irreligious in doing so … for the benefit of the species we kill carnivorous beasts…

Secondly, to protect shelters if slaughter is required, then himsa can exempted.

In Gandhi’s own words:

Even man slaughter may be necessary in certain cases. Suppose a man runs amuck and goes furiously about, sword in hand and killing anyone that comes in his way and no one dares to capture him alive. Anyone who dispatches this lunatic will earn the gratitude of the community and be regarded as a benevolent man.

Thirdly, to take the life of a person, who is struggling for his life, is not himsa.

I see that there is an initiative horror of killing living beings under any circumstances whatever. For instance, an alternative has been suggested in the shape of confining ever rabid dogs in a certain place and allowing them to die a slow death.

Now my idea of compassion makes this impossible for me. I cannot for a moment bear to see a dog or for that matter any other living being, helplessly, suffering the torture of a slow death. I do not kill a human being thus circum­stanced because I have more helpful remedies. I should kill a dog similarly situated because in its case I am without a remedy.

Further, he added:

Should my child be attacked with rabies and there was no helpful remedy to relieve his agony, I should consider it my duty to take his life. Fatalism has its limits. We leave things to fate after exhausting all the remedies. One of the remedies and the final one to relieve the agony of a tortured child are to take his life.

All these statements prove that life itself involves so many violence but we have to choose the path of least violence. And negative concept of ahimsa in Gandhian philosophy tells us how to lead a non-violence life.

Positive Ahimsa :

“In its positive form, ahimsa means the largest love, greatest charity. If I am a follower of ahimsa, I must love my enemy. I must apply the same rules to the wrong-doer who is my enemy or a stranger to me, as I would do to my wrong-doing father or son. This active ahimsa necessarily includes truth and fearlessness. As man cannot deceive the loved one, he does not fear or frighten him or her.

Gift of life is the greatest of all gift; a man who gives it in reality, disarms all hostility. He has paved the way for an honorable understanding. And none who is himself subject to fear can bestow that gift. He must therefore be himself fearless. A man cannot then practice Ahimsa and be a coward at the same time. The practice of Ahimsa calls forth the greatest courage… For Gandhi, ahimsa really means that “you may not offend anybody; you may not harbour an uncharitable thought even in connection with one who may consider himself to be your enemy..”

Even all the scriptures of the world have registered emphatic and unequivocal testimony in favour of non-violence being practised by all, not merely singly but collectively as well. In all humanity, Gandhi had often felt that having no axes to grind and having by nature a detached mind, he gives a true interpretation of the Hindu, Islamic or other scriptures. For this humble claim, Gandhi anticipated the forgiveness of Sanatanists, Christians and Mussalmans.”

Defining the very concept of ahimsa in its positive form, Gandhi said: “Having flung aside the sword, there is nothing except the cup of love which I can offer to those who oppose me. It is by offering that cup that I expect to draw them close to me. I cannot think of permanent enmity between man and man and believing as I do in the theory of rebirth, I live in the hope that if not in this birth, in some other birth, I shall be able to hug all humanity in friendly embrace.”

It shows that by ahimsa Gandhi not only means avoiding injury to anything or anyone on earth in thought, words or deed, but it also implies active and creative love, charity, humanity etc. in order to create a peaceful, respectful and dignified world order.

Characteristics of the Devotee of Ahimsa :

We have explained the term ‘ahimsa’ above in a very wide spectrum from both negative and positive perspectives. But it is also essential to discuss about the characteristics of the devotee of ahimsa, as it will elaborate the meaning of the term in a more comprehensive manner. The first characteristic of a true devotee of ahimsa is love. Love in the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable.

Ahimsa, in the form of love, is also related to other characteristics. It is ahimsa, from where the senses of forgiveness, generosity, tolerance, love etc. have its important role to play. That is why, Gandhi used to say that without ahimsa it is difficult to achieve the end of truth. But this love does not mean to love only your friends and fellow-beings.

In Gandhi’s words, “It is no non-violence if we merely love those that love us. It is non-violence only when we love those that hate us. I know how difficult it is to follow this grand law of love. But are not all great and good things difficult to do? Love of hater is the most difficult of all. But by the grace of God even this most difficult thing becomes easy to accomplish if we want to do it.” Gandhi assumes that God looks after us due to this love only. Hence, love is the first and foremost characteristic of the devotee of ahimsa.

He who seeks refuge in God ought to have a glimpse of the Atma that transcends the body; and the moment one has a glimpse of the imperishable Atma, one sheds the love of the imperishable body. Training in non-violence is thus diametrically opposed to training in violence. Violence is needed for the protection of things external; non-violence is needed for the protection of the Atma, for the protection of one’s honour.

In his manner, as a true devotee of the principle of ahimsa, Gandhi tried to flourish both the internal as well as external aspects of human personality. To inculcate this sense of ahimsa was his ultimate objective. Because, only a sensitive being will able to build a human society, which will be an ideal society in its own way. Further, fearlessness and self-confidence are other qualities of a devotee of ahimsa. In Gandhi’s words, “without fearlessness and self-confidence, ahimsa is not possible.”

He further says:

Non-violence and cowardice go ill together. 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 non-violence is impossi­bility without the possession of unadulterated fearlessness. My creed of non-violence is an extremely active force. It has no room for cowardice or even weakness.

There is hope for a violent man to be some day non-violent, but there is none for a coward. I have therefore said more than once in these pages that if we do not know how to defend ourselves, our women and our places of worship by the force of suffering, i.e., non-violence, we must, if we are men, be at least able to defend all these by fighting.

For Gandhi, cowards can never be moral because they are uncommitted to their own integrity or moral projects, unless it is safe or convenient. Insisting that a person’s autonomy is always paramount, Gandhi repeatedly argues that open, straightforward violence on behalf of one’s own integrity is preferable to running away, but non-violence is superior to both.

Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence I would advice violence. Thus, when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me, I told him that it was his duty to defend me even by using violence.

It shows, though Gandhi accepts the courage and bravery of soldiers, yet he finds the soldier’s courage is defective, incomplete and inferior to that of the Satyagrahi because the possession of arms implies an element of fear. But, true non-violence is impossibility without the possession of unadulterated fearlessness. Gandhi accepts fear but only in one condition and that is the fear of God.

The votary of ahimsa has only one fear that is of God. He who seeks refuge in God ought to have a glimpse of the Atma that transcends the body; and the moment one has a glimpse of the imperishable Atma one sheds the love of the perishable body.

In this way, ahimsa is a quality of Atma, which consists of the further qualities of love, generosity, fearlessness or in its holistic sense God itself. It does not mean not to fight against injustice and cruelty, but it means all these have to be avoided by conducive and truthful means. And it would be possible if the follower of ahimsa has proper control over his action and thought. It means, the devotee of ahimsa has to be tolerant and suffering-being.

It is not that I am incapable of anger, for instance, but I succeed on almost all occasions to keep my feelings under control. Whatever may be the result, there is always in me conscious struggle for following the law of non-violence deliberately and ceaselessly. Such a struggle leaves one stronger for it.

The more I work at this law, the more I feel the delight in my life the delight in the scheme of the universe. It gives me a peace and a meaning of the mysteries of nature that I have no power to describe. Thus, for Gandhi, qualities of toleration and patience are the biggest qualities of a devotee of ahimsa because it will expand the heart of the devotee where the other qualities like love, compassion, fraternity will naturally flourish. Even in religious field Gandhi welcomed toleration and compassion.

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all land to be blown about my house as freely as possible, but I refuse to be blown, of my feet by any of them. Mine is not a religion of the prison house, it has room for the least among God’s creatures, but it is proof against the insolent bride of race, religion or colour.

For Gandhi, ahimsa is the highest form of compassion and it is possible only if the seeker could remain himself humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble that even the dust could crush him. Thus compassion, tolerance and forgiveness are some essential qualities of the devotee of ahimsa and truth.

In Gandhian philosophy, the concepts of ahimsa and truth can be applicable not only in religious and moral fields, but also in political, economic and social fields. He defined the new concept of ahimsa not only for individual life, but also for social life. For Gandhi, “non-violence is not an individual virtue but a course of spiritual and political conduct for the individual and community.”

A devotee of ahimsa must know how to control his emotions and anger in social and individual life. It is the collective being, community or society from where we can get inspiration for ahimsa. To have a balance and comprehensive society, ahimsa is mandatory.

Thus, a non-violent society would be a society where there would not be any discrimination on the basis of class, caste, sex, colour, creed, birthplace etc. If the individualistic concept of ahimsa means compassion, love, toleration and patience, then the socialistic concept of ahimsa means absence of exploitation and discrimination based domination, i.e., presence of a free society.

To conclude, ahimsa is a means not only to gain spirituality and salvation or Moksha for an individual, but also it is an instrument to preserve a comprehensive and balanced society. Consequently, ahimsa became first and foremost principle in the Gandhian philosophy and practice. To spread and disseminate it was the ultimate aim of his life for which he struggled throughout.

Other Aspects of a New World Order :

In the previous section we have seen how truth and non-violence have been playing significant role as foundational values for a new world order. It is a unique world order in the sense that nature of politics, economics, and religion as well as the system of educations are totally different in Gandhian plan of life. The section follows shall try to present a comprehensive picture of various tenets of this new world order one-by-one.

Politics of a new world order, which is essentially based on the principle of truth and non-violence, would be influenced by morality and spirituality. Gandhi’s ultimate aim was to spiritualize the politics. Different experiences, which he got through the different experi­ments, revealed him that truth and non-violence are those principles which govern our life. That is way; his politics is directed by spiritual and moral laws.

For him, even politics is a kind of social or religious work. Gandhi says, “For me politics bereft of religion are absolute dirt, even to be shunned. Politics concerns nation and that which must be one of the concerns of a man who is religiously inclined, in other words, a seeker after God and truth. For me, God and Truth are convertible terms, and if anyone told me that God is a God of untruth or a God of torture, I would decline to worship him. Therefore, in politics also we have to establish the kingdom of Heaven.”

That is why, Ronald J. Terchek says that “for Gandhi political life must be an echo of public life and there cannot be any division between the two and each to be morally directed.” As religion and morality provide a kind of inspiration to individuals personal life, similarly, his public life is also influenced by religion.

For Gandhi, politics is directly related with the development of nation and, it is possible, if we use truthful and non-violent means into political sphere. Politics, which is achieved through non-violent means and which is based on the religious values and moral norms in Gandhian philosophy, is explained in this section.

Non-Violent State :

Gandhi opines:

To me political power is not an end but one of the means of enabling people to better their condition in every department of life. Political power means capacity to regulate national life through national representatives. If national life becomes so perfect as to become self-regulated, no representation is necessary. There is then a state of enlightened anarchy. In such a state everyone is his own ruler.

He rules himself in such a manner that he is never a hindrance to his neighbours. In the ideal state therefore there is no political power because there is no state. But the ideal is never realized in life. Hence, the classical statement of Thoreau that Government is best which governs the least must be accepted…

Though Gandhi’s ultimate aim was to realize Ramrajya, yet Swaraj was his second best state. Ramrajya is an end, is an ideal, Swaraj is the way, Swaraj is the means, the reality. Swaraj is also based on the principles of satya and ahimsa. For Gandhi non-violence is the means to flourish the way of democratic life in real sense of the term.

Because the aim of democracy is to provide liberty as much as possible and it can be flourished only in a proper non-violent society. Therefore, non-violence should be cherished as much as possible. By criticizing the western concept of democracy Gandhi said that either they should declare themselves as dictators or should try to evolve themselves as democrats in real sense of the term.

For western philosophy the practice of non-violence is related with an individual’s personal life. But Gandhi applied it even in public and political spheres and presented a new form of politics oriented towards a peaceful, truthful, non-violent, humanitarian society.

By police force, he meant:

The police of my conception will, however, be of a wholly different pattern from the present day force. Its rank will be composed of believers in non-violence. They will be servants, not masters, of the people. The people will instinctively render them every help, and through mutual cooperation they will easily deal with ever-decreasing disturbances. The police force will have some kind of arms, but they will be rarely used, if at all. In fact, the policeman will be reformers.

Thus, in Gandhi’s non-violent society police force will adopt evolutionary steps for the sinner, not the discriminatory measures. In fact, the policemen would be reformers. Their police work would be confided primarily to robbers and dacoits. Similarly, there will be no room for communal disturbance. In this manner, Gandhi’s state is the synonym of real democracy.

Discussing about the internal set-up of a non-violent society, Gandhi says that it will be based on the principle of decentralization. For him, centralization of power is the main cause of exploitation and violence. Therefore, power must be decentralized. Within a decentralized structure, each and every state, institution, village and individual will get an opportunity for development.

In this structure composed of innumerable villages there will be ever widening, never ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be the individual always ready to perish for the circle of villages, till at last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals, never aggressive in their arrogance but ever humble, sharing the majority of the oceanic circle of which they are integral units.

Accordingly, in such a scheme of non-violent society, villages will be ready to sacrifice themselves for the development of the state and similarly states will be ready to devote themselves for the development of the villages.

In this society all the members will help each other and no one would be assumed as more dominant and powerful. The concept of equality will be prevailed there in real sense of the term. All the members of the society would be totally devoted for the egalitarian and just development of the society.

It acknowledges that in the Gandhian non-violent society, state and other institutions will be treated as servants of the people. And as much as this sense of duty will be increased, the state will be withering away because now all the members are so conscious and alert for their duties and responsibilities that any regulating authority will not be required at all. It will now be a perfect enlightened anarchy, which is the ultimate objective to be achieved.

Autonomy of Individual in Gandhian State :

In Gandhian non-violent state every individual has to play his/her role in a right manner.

By accepting the importance of an individual, Gandhi said:

If the individual ceases to count, what is a society? Individual freedom alone can make man voluntarily surrender himself completely to the service of society. If it is wrested from him he becomes an automation and the society is ruined. No society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom.

Gandhi used to say that an individual is the combination of negative and positive instincts. Positively, he is the combination of spirituality, morality and rationality. Negatively, he looks for many hedonistic pleasures. Individual’s life is continuously struggling within all these positive and negative instincts.

Thus, the state should try to flourish the positive instincts in individual. As much the state will be non-violent, individual will consume his/her liberty and lead a moral life. For Gandhi, non-violent state will always be against the centralization of power.

I look upon an increase in the power of the state with the greatest fear, because although while apparently doing well by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which lies at the root of all progress.

It shows that state represents violence in a concentrated and consolidated form. The individual has a soul, but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence. Gandhi proposes the concept of voluntary organization to be replaced by the state.

It means that”… Real Swaraj will come not by the acquisition of authority by a few but by the acquisition of capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be obtained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority.” Thus, in Gandhi’s non-violent state, moral individual is the ideal one.

Political Means: Satyagraha and Non-Violent Movement :

As politics and its various branches are based on the principles of truth and non-violence, similarly various institutions of politics are also influenced by these principles. Thus, an ideal state, which is non-violent, will be directed only by the ideal instrument.

And for Gandhi satyagraha is the main instrument in a non-violent ideal society. In fact, the philosophy, which works behind the action of satya­graha, is the philosophy of truth and non-violence itself. Satya is the end and ahimsa is the means. The term satyagraha stands for soul force.

According to Gandhi, “Passive resistance is a method of securing right by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant to my conscience, I use soul force. For instance, the government of the day has passed a law which is applicable to me. I do not like it. If by using violence I force the government to repeal the law, I am employing what may be termed body force. If I do not obey the law and accept the penalty for its breach, I use soul force. It involves sacrifice of self.”

Actually, satyagraha stands for two terms – satya and agraha. Satya means truth and agraha means insisting on something without becoming obstinate or uncompromising. When the two terms are combined, there is a beautiful duality of meaning, implying both insis­tences on and for truth.

A moral agent insists on truth as he sees it, but acknowledges that he might be wrong and invites his opponents to join him in a cooperative search for truth. That is why, sometimes, it is also called as sacrifice of self or active love for others.

Gandhi writes:

Passive resistance is an all sided sword, it can be used anyhow, it bless him who uses it and him against whom it is used. Without drawing a drop of blood it produces far reaching results. It never ruined and cannot be stolen. Competition between passive resistors does not exhaust. The sword of passive resistance does not require a scabbard. It is strange indeed that you should consider such a weapon to be weapon merely of the weak.

To become a passive resister is easy enough but it is also equally difficult. All satyagrahis are bound one and all to refrain at all hazard from violence, not to throw stones or in any-way whatever to injure anybody. Satyagrahi, in Gandhian formulation, would be a self-disciplined person.

Truth, non-violence, Brahmacharya, Aparigraha, Astaya, fearlessness is some guiding principles for a satyagrahi. By following all these principles in her/his individual life, an individual may become a true satyagrahi individually as well as socially. A true satyagrahi must have faith in good human nature.

A person, who himself is not free from all these whims, how he/she will handle the situations at individual or social spheres. Gandhi said after his great deal of experience that “those who want to become passive resister for the service of the country have to observe perfect chastity, adopt poverty, follow truth and cultivate fearlessness.”

He further said:

Chastity is one of the greatest disciples without which the mind cannot attain requisite firmness. A man who is unchaste loses stamina, becomes emasculated and cowardly. By following all these rules and regulations a satyagrahi can be a good and balanced person and can use all these practices in public and political affairs. Gandhi assumes that only self-disciplined, fearless and non-violent can become a true satyagrahi. And it is not difficult to be a satyagrahi because all these qualities are inherent in human nature.

As a political instrument, satyagraha can be exercised in the following ways:

Non-Violent Movement:

Gandhi believes that it is citizen only who allows the state to do exploi­tation. If people will not accept the bad laws, the state automatically will not be able to pass bad legislation. Accordingly, “that we should obey laws whether good or bad is a new fangled notion. There was no such thing in former days.

The people disregarded those laws they did not like and suffered the penalties for their breach. It is contrary to our manhood if we obey laws repugnant to our conscience. Such teaching is opposed to a religion and means slavery.” Law-abiding citizen means the satyagrahi citizen and a true satyagrahi will always protest against injustice and exploitation. But, the way to protest will always be unique in its terms.

Following are some non-violent programmes which Gandhi used during 1920s:

i. To resign from each and every kind of government services, honours and posts.

ii. Non-participation, directly or indirectly, in any public/government functioning.

iii. To close all the educational institutions funded by government.

iv. To protest against government laws, lawyers and conflicts rising by government and try to organized their own panchayat institutions.

v. To boycott all the foreign-based services protected by government.

vi. To popularize swadeshi and boycott of the foreign goods.

Satyagraha would be different in different context. If a satyagrahi is protesting against his opponent and he can do his work without any disturbance, then it will be called self-purification process in a very strict sense because apparently your opponent is not coming in the way.

In other aspect, satyagraha may be very radical in nature. Because here your opponent would not be able to do any work without your presence, without your help and cooperation. Hence, here lots of considerations are required before going through the path of satyagraha. If really an atmosphere becomes so stressful and unbearable then only one should adopt this type of protest for the sake of dharma, humanity and morality.

Civil Disobedience Movement:

Like non-cooperation, civil disobedience is another branch of the same tree i.e., satyagraha. According to Gandhi, it is the duty of every satyagrahi to resist and disobey all those laws, which he considers to be unjust and immoral. But he insisted that such disobedience must be civil in the sense of being polite, dutiful and non-violent.

Gandhi believes that if you are disobeying inhuman laws, there is not any harm. Actually, most people not understand the complicated machinery of the government. They do not realize that every citizen silently but nonetheless certainly sustains the government of the day in the way of which he has no knowledge.

Every citizen therefore renders himself responsible for every act of his government. And it is quite proper to support it so long as the actions of the government are bearable. But when they hurt his nation, it becomes his duty to withdraw his support.

With this conception in his mind, Gandhi insists that no government exists independently of its people. Citizens may accede to their government because they generally support it. Or, they may disagree with the state’s conduct but nevertheless acquiesce because the costs of dissent are high, because they are felicitous, or because they are preoccupied with their own individual concerns.

Whatever the reasons, Gandhi argues; government rests on their sufferance, even though the state or individuals might deny the relationship. By making power visible and by teaching people that they are the basis of power, he thinks he can domesticate it and make it accountable to clear-righted citizens.

Gandhi credits individuals with power appear in his call for the individual to stand alone, if necessary, to reclaim power. On his account, lonely assertion of power can have a powerful demon­stration effect as others come to see their complicity in their own domination and understand that they can recover the power they ceded to others.

By explaining the inherent meaning of civil disobedience, Gandhi tells if there is a democratic institution, government is very much cooperative to their citizens, and citizens are ready to do work with government and if it’s different agencies are very satisfactory, then there is no need to go for civil disobedience. Because for small cause one cannot launch civil disobedience movement. It does not mean that small cause is not important. It is important and can be solved by small gathering instead of going for a movement.

Tolerance and patience are playing an important role in civil disobedience. The person who is more tolerant and more patient will prove himself as a good follower of the principle of civil disobedience. By locating ‘civil disobedience’,

If civil disobedience movement is taking a form/shape where innocent people are losing their life and if Satyagraha is realizing the fact that it is going to be uncontrollable, then it would be better to take the movement back.

In this manner, one can infer that the disobedience of law will be called disobedience only if it is non-violent in real sense of the term. The ultimate objective of civil disobedience movement, which is non-violent, is to win the opponent by facing all the kinds of inhuman atrocities.

Strikes are also taken by Gandhi as a non-violent political action. For Gandhi, “I do not deny that such strikes can serve political ends. But they do not fall within the plan of non-violent non-cooperation. It does not require much effort of the intellect to perceive that it is most dangerous thing to make political use of labour until labours understand the political conditions of the country and are prepared to work for the common good. This is hardly to be expected of them all of a sudden and until they have bettered their own conditions so as to enable them to keep body and soul together in a decent manner.

The greatest political contribution that labourer can make is to improve their own condition, to become better informed, to insist on their rights, and even to demand proper use by their employers of the manufactured goods in which they have had such an important hand. The proper evolution, therefore, would be for the labourers to raise themselves to the status of part proprietors. Strikes, therefore, for the present situation should only take place for the direct betterment of labourers’ lot, and when they have acquired the spirit of patriotism, for the regulation of prices of the manufactured goods.

The basic conditions of a successful strike are as follows:

i. The cause of the strike must be just.

ii. There should be practical unanimity among the strikers.

iii. There should be no violence used against non-strikers.

iv. Strikes should be able to maintain themselves during the strike period without falling back upon union funds and such therefore occupy themselves in some useful and productive temporary occupation.

v. A strike is no remedy when there is enough other labour to replace strikers. In that case, in the event of unjust treatment or inadequate wages or the like, resignation is the remedy.

vi. Successful strikes have taken place even when the above condi­tions have not been fulfilled, but that merely proves that the employers were weak and had a guilty conscience.

Thus, it is clear that there should be no strike which is not justifiable on merits. No unjust strike should succeed. All public sympathy must be withheld from such strikes. The public have no means of judging the merits of a strike, unless they are backed by impartial persons enjoying public confidence. Interested men cannot judge the merit of their own case. Hence, there must be an arbitrator accepted by the parties or a judicial adjudication.

Fasting is a potent weapon for the satyagrahi. Like another means of non-violent resolution, fasting is also an instrument of self-purification and that of your opponent. It cannot be taken by everyone. According to Gandhi, “Mere physical capacity to take it is no qualification for it … it should never be mechanical effort or a mere imitation. It must come from the depth of one’s soul. It is, therefore, rare.”

A Satyagrahi should fast only as a last resort when all other avenues of redress have failed. There is no room for imitation in fasts. He, who has no inner strength, should not dream of it, and never with attachment to success … Ridiculous fasts spread like plague and are harmful.” For Gandhi, “there can be no room for selfishness, anger, lack of faith, or impatience in a pure fast…. Infinite patience, firm resolve, single mindedness of purpose, perfect clam and no anger must of necessity be there.

But since it is impossible for a person to develop these entire qualities all at once, no one who has not devoted himself to following the laws of ahimsa should undertake a Satyagrahi fast. It shows how Gandhi has made fast as a public/political instrument, which was earlier treated only as an individual effort. Public fasting increases the confidence of la5iTnen and also alert them for previous mistakes. It is the strongest instrument to change the heart of your opponent.

Hizrat is another very significant instrument of non-violent movement. Hizrat means to leave your place by your own consent or to leave the place of exploitation to protest against exploitation. For Gandhi, Hizrat is an important instrument in the hands of satyagrahi. To preserve their self-respect and self-esteem, the exploited people are bound to leave the place. To leave the place where imperialist or dominating rule is prevailing. Satyagrahi has to face all these physical, emotional and mental sufferings alone. Others will not be invited.

Thus, Gandhi tried his best to present new tools to protest. Actually, he intended to attach ‘Neeti’ with ‘Rajya’. His concept of politics revolved around the concept of morality or humanity. Politics is an instrument in one’s hand to establish a new world order which would be more humane and conducive.

Economics :

What Gandhi means by real progress is not merely material progress but integral human progress where moral progress is of high priority. He suspects that material advancement has a strong tendency to lead moral decay.

For Gandhi, “I must confess that I do not draw a sharp or any distinction between economics and ethics-economics that hurt the well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and, therefore, sinful. Thus, the economics that permit one country to prey upon another are immoral. It is sinful to buy and use articles made by sweated labour.”

Accordingly, true economics never militates against the highest ethical standard, just as all true ethics to be worth its name must at the same time be also good economics. An economics that inculcates Mammon worship, and enables the strong to amass wealth at the expense of the weak, is a false and dismal science. It spells death. True economics, on the other hand, stands for social justice; it promotes the good of all equally including the weakest, and is indispensable for decent life.

Gandhi said that the economic constitution of India and for the matter of that of the world should be such that no one under it should suffer from want of food and clothing. In other words, everybody should be able to get sufficient work to enable him to make the two ends meet. And this ideal can be universally utilized only if the means of production of the elementary necessities of life remain in the control of the masses. These should be freely available to all as God’s air and water are or ought to be; they should not be made a vehicle for the exploitation of others.

Their monopolization by any country, nation or group of persons would be unjust. The neglect of this simple principle is the cause of the destitution that we witness today not only in this land but in other parts of the world too. Actually, Gandhi wants to propound such an economic order where each and everyone will be treated equally. Quarrel between capital and labour will be stopped for ever.

“I want to bring about an equalization of status. The working classes have all these centuries been isolated and relegated to a lower status. They have been shoodras, and the word has been interpreted to mean an inferior status. I want to allow no differentiation between the son of a weaver, of an agriculturalist and of a school- master.

For Gandhi, economic equality is the master to non-violent independence. Working for economic equality means abolishing the eternal conflict between capital and labour. It means the levelling down of the few rich in whose hands is concentrated the bulk of the nation’s wealth on the one hand, and a levelling up of the semi-starved naked millions, on the other.

A non-violent system of government is clearly an impossibility so long as the wider gulf between the rich and the hungry millions persists. The contrast between the palaces of New Delhi and the miserable hovels of the poor, labouring class cannot last one day in a free India in which the poor will enjoy the same power as the richest in the land.

But one may put this question: how to propound an economic order on the basis of equality? According to Gandhi, the first step in this direction would be the principle of controlling self or in other words the principle of trusteeship.

A violent and bloody revolution is a certainty one day unless there is a voluntary abdication of riches and the power which riches give and sharing them for the common good. I adhere to my doctrine of trust­eeship in spite of the ridicule that has been poured upon it. It is true that it is difficult to reach. So is non-violence difficult to attain. But we made up our mind in 1920 to negotiate that steep ascent.

According to the doctrine of trusteeship, one may not possess a rupee more than their neighbours. How is this to be brought about? Non-violently? Or should the wealthy be dispossessed of their posses­sions? To do this, we would naturally have to resort to violence. This violent action cannot benefit society.

Society will be the person, for it will lose the gifts of a man who knows how to accumulate wealth. Therefore, the non-violent way is eventually superior. The rich man will be left in possession of his wealth, of which he will use what he reasonably requires for his personal needs and will act as a trustee for the remainder to be used for society. In this argument honesty on the part of the trustee is assumed.

As soon as a man looks upon himself as a servant of society, earns for its sake, spends for its benefit, then purity enters into earrings and there is Ahimsa in his venture. Moreover, if man’s mind turn towards this way of life, there will come about a peaceful revolution in society, and that without any bitterness.

Further, Gandhi’s concept of economics is centered not only up to individual. Explaining his concept of economics at societal level, Gandhi criticized the western notion of economics where matter is at the centre. Contrary to this, in Gandhian philosophy, an individual is a supreme consideration.

For Gandhi, man himself is a big asset. That is why Gandhi used to say; whatever we are doing our supreme consideration must be for human cause. But, in modern economic set-up, we have ignored all the moral and human aspects of the society. Gandhi has criticized all the symbols of modern economy one by one. At the first step he has condemned machines.

In Hind Swaraj, He writes:

Today machinery merely helps a few to ride on the backs of millions. The impetus behind it all is not the philanthropy to save labour, but greed. It is against this constitution of things that I am fighting with all my might…. The supreme consideration is man. The machine should not tend to atrophy the limbs of man. The machinery which is developing today is becoming the means of exploitation and further domination by rich countries and rich people. Today’s machine-based industrialization of economy is centered on profit-making tendency.

Gandhi criticizes the machine being responsible for creating the panic situation of unemployment. Imagine a nation working only five hours per day on an average, and this not by choice but by force of circumstances, and you have a realistic picture of India. He also explains the reason why our average life rate is deplorably low, and why we are getting more and more impoverishment is that we have neglected our 7, 00,000 villages. We have indeed thought of them, but only to the extent of exploiting them.

We read thrilling accounts of the “glory that was India and of the land that was flowing with milk and honey; but today it is a land of starving millions. We are sitting in this time pandal under a blaze of electronic lights, but we do not know that we are burning these lights at the expense of the poor. We have no right to use these lights if we forget that we owe these to them.”

Gandhi was not against machines. He himself said, “How can I be when I know that even this body is a most delicate piece of machinery? The spinning wheel is a machine; a little toothpick is a machine. What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such. The craze is for what they call labour-saving machinery.

Men go on ‘saving labour’ till thousands are without work and thrown on the open streets to die of starvation. I want to save time and labour not for a fraction of mankind but for all. I want the concentration of wealth, not in the hands of a few, but in the hands of all.” He looks for localized production as it is required there in the society.

When production and consumption both become localized, the temptation to speed up production, indefinitely and at price, disap­pears. All the endless difficulties and problems that our present day economic system presents, too, would then come to an end.

Gandhi believed that industrialization on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active exploitation of the villages as the problems of competition and marketing come in. Therefore, we have to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing mainly for use.

Provided this character of the industry is maintained, there would be no objection to villages using even the modem machines and tools that they can make afford to use. Only they should not be used as a means of exploitation of others.

Gandhi’s industrialization will be established by industrious people. His industrialization will be non-violent in nature. As the non-violent nation will be self-dependent. And, our self-dependency will definitely reduce our dependence on machines. Gandhi propounds the philosophy of Village republic’. He was very much confident about the fact that Swaraj will be established by village industry (then only economic will be inspired by morality).

My idea of village Swaraj is that it is a complete republic, independent of its neighbours for its own vital wants and yet independent for many others in which dependence is necessary. Thus, every village’s first concern will be to grow its own food crops, and cotton for its cloth.

It should have a reserve for its cattle, recre­ation and playground for adults and children-. Then if there is more land available, it will grow useful money crops, thus excluding ganja, tobacco, opium and the like.

Thus, the economic world order based on truth and non-violence will totally be ethical in nature. It is possible only if each and every unit of the society will be self-sufficient and self-dependent. Therefore, in Gandhian philosophy, each and every aspects of life would be ethical and moral principles. In Gandhian philosophy economics is a part of moral life as its ultimate aim is to propound an ideal and moral world order.

In the new world order religion will play an important and vibrant role. In fact, God has always been the centre of Gandhian thought. In his philosophy the meaning of religion has its unique understanding.

Let me explain what I mean by religion. It is not the Hindu religion, which I certainly prize above all religion, but the religion which transcends Hinduism, which changes one’s very nature, which binds one indissolubly to the truth within and which-ever purifies. It is a permanent element in human nature which … leaves the soul restless until it has found itself.

Religion does not mean any particular religion or community. Religion is one which can flourish an individual’s moral and ethical nature. According to Gandhi, the essence of religion lies in morality and humanity. For a true morality religion plays a similar role as water plays for seed within clay. For Gandhi, religion is not only limited up to the concept and essence of God but it is a day-to-day practice. Our entire daily works, whether it is economics, politics, religion or all our deeds, are supposed to achieve the same distinctions.

They are intermingled. They are interlinked or interdepended. Separately, they do not have any importance and relevance. Ultimately, we want to know our own nature with different experiences gained in life as self-realization is the absolute end.

Actually, gandhian philosophy of religion propounds the concept of fraternity and brotherhood via different religions. Even then he finds the idea of religious convention profoundly irreligious and offensive. For Gandhi, every man is born into a particular religion.

Since no religion is wholly false, he should be able to work out his destiny in and through it. And if he feels attracted to some aspects of another religion, he should be at liberty to borrow them. Gandhi cannot see why a man should even need to give up his religion.

Gandhi acknowledges that men might find sufficient similarities between their conceptions of God to induce them to belong to a common religion. However, since men are naturally different, their conception and way of relating to God can never be completely identical. Every organized religion must therefore remain a loose fellowship of believers, and accommodate, even encourage, individual diversity. Insistence on total creedal conformity derives their individuality, violates their spiritual integrity and leads to untruth.

In fact, every major religion articulates a unique vision of God and emphasizes different features of the human condition. The idea of God as a loving father is most fully developed in Christianity, and the emphasis on love and suffering is also unique to it. I cannot say that it is singular, or that it is not to be found in other religions. But the presentation is unique. Rigorous monotheism and the spirit of equality are most beautifully articulated in and particular to Islam.

The distinction between the impersonal and personal conceptions of God, the principle of the unity of all life and the doctrine of ahimsa are distinctive to Hinduism. Every religion has a distinct moral and spiritual ethos and represents a wonderful and irreplaceable ‘spiritual composition’. To a truly religious man all religions should be equally dear.

Gandhi argues that since the cosmic power is infinite and the limited human mind can grasp only a ‘fragment’ of it, and that too inadequately, every religion is necessarily limited and partial. Even then we cannot say them as untruth. But again they won’t be called as perfect or absolute one. Those claiming to be directly revealed by God are revealed to men with their fair share of inescapable human limita­tions and communicated to others in necessarily inadequate human languages.

To claim that a particular religion offers an exhaustive or even definitive account of the nature of the cosmic spirit is to imply both that some men are free from inescapable human limitations and that God is partial and thus to be guilty of both spiritual arrogance and blasphemy. Since no religion is final and perfect, each can greatly benefit from a dialogue with other religion.

In fact, for Gandhi, every human being has a unique psycho­logical and spiritual constitution. He cannot leap out of it anymore than he can jump out of his body. Every God is therefore someone’s God, that is, his or her way of understanding the cosmic spirit.

No individual can avoid looking at the cosmic power through his own eyes and conceptualizing it in terms of his uniquely personal disposi­tions, tendencies and needs. Since the very idea of a personal God has its origin to man’s moral and emotional needs, and the latter vary from individual to individual, Gandhi insists that one cannot consis­tently accept the legitimacy of a personal God and deny each individual’s right to form his own distinctive conception of Him.

According to him, “Religion represents the way man conceives and relates himself to God”. At another place, he writes, “The formal, customary, organized or historical religions center on the personal, and the pure or eternal religion around the impersonal God. For Gandhi Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the other religion all based on specific conceptions of a personal God. They involve distinct forms of prayer, worship, rituals and beliefs about His nature and relation to the world, and are sectarian.”

The true or pure religion lies beyond them, and has nothing more and nothing less than recognizing that the universe is pervaded and governed by a cosmic and organizing one’s entire life accordingly. It is basically living in the contrast, intimate and unmediated presence of the cosmic spirit, and represents the purest form of spirituality. Thus, the true religion ‘transcends [but] does not supersede’ organized religions and constitutes their common ‘basis’ and connecting ‘link’.

Education :

In the new world order, which will be based on the foundations of truth and non-violence, education will also play a very healthy and positive role. For Gandhi, to establish a new society, a new approach to education will be required. That is why; he did a very serious and continuous effort with his fellow-beings.

For Gandhi, the ultimate aim of each and every type of education is to flourish inherent qualities of an individual. An education system, where an individual’s intellectual, spiritual and physical aspects are adhered, will be called as true education.

It can be assumed that an individual’s personality has three aspects, viz., intelligence, emotion and appetite. Theoretically, these may be termed by different terminologies but in actual practice they are not different from each other.

In psychology, these is called as intelligence, emotions and appetite, whereas in daily life as wisdom (Gyan), devotion (Bhakti) and service (Karma). All these three elements are there within an individual’s inherent personality. Now how to make a comprehensive, consistent and balanced development of these aspects of human personality would be the ultimate aim of education in Gandhian philosophy.

Through the proper constructive programme, Gandhi outlined the system of education in his own and unique way, in the following manner:

Basic Education :

The objective of the basic education is that of intellectual, physical and moral development of the children through the medium of a handicraft. But I hold that any scheme, which is sound from the educative point of view and effectively managed, is bound to be sound economically.

Basic education links the children, whether of the cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India. It develops both the body and mind, and keeps the child rooted to the soil with a glorious vision of the future in the realization of which he or she begins to take his or her share from the very commencement of him or her career in school.

Let us now have a cursory glance at the fundamentals of basic education:

i. All education to be true must be self-supporting, that is to say, in the end it will pay its expenses excepting the capital which will remain intact.

ii. In it the cunning of the hand will be utilized even up to the final stage, that is to say, hands of the pupils will be skillfully working at some industry for some period during the day. All education must be imparted through the medium of the provincial language.

iii. In this scheme of education there is no room for giving sectional religious training. Fundamental universal ethics will have full scope.

iv. This education, whether it is confined to children or adults, male or female, will find its way to the home of the pupils.

v. Since millions of students receiving this education will consider themselves as of the whole of India, they must learn an inter-provincial language. This common inter-provincial speech can only be Hindustani written in Nagari or Urdu scripts. Therefore, pupils have to master both the scripts.

The introduction of manual training, as an important part of basic education, will serve a double purpose in a poor country like ours. It will pay for the education of our children and teach them an occupation on which they can fall back in after-life, if they choose, for earning a living. Such a system must make our children self-reliant. Nothing will demoralize the nation so much as that we should learn to despise labour.

Higher Education:

While discussing about higher education Gandhi said, “I would revolu­tionize college education and relate it to national necessities. There would be degrees for mechanical and other engineers. They would be attached to the different industries which should pay for the training of the graduates they need. Thus, the Tatas would be expected to run a college for training engineers under the supervision of the state, the mill associations would run among them a college for training graduates whom they need.”

Similarly, Gandhi said, for the other industries that may be named. Commerce will have its college. There remain arts, medicine and agriculture. Several private arts colleges are today self-supporting. The state would, therefore, cease to run its own. Medical colleges would be attached to certified hospitals.

As they are popular among moneyed men, they may be expected by voluntary contributions to support medical colleges. And agricultural colleges to be worthy of the name must be self-supporting. Gandhi said that he had a painful experience of some agricultural graduates. Their knowledge is superficial.

They lack practical experience. But if they had their apprenticeship on farms, which are self-restrained and answer the requirements of the country, they would not have to gain experience after getting their degrees and at the expense of their employers.

The suggestion has often being made that in order to make education compulsory, or even available to every boy and girl wishing to receive education, our schools and colleges should become almost, if not wholly, self-supporting not through donation or state aid or fees extracted from students, but through remuneration work done by the students themselves. This can only be done by making industrial training compulsory. And it is possible only when our students begin to recognize the dignity of labour. Gandhi was totally against the concept of scholarship.

Is it not far better that we find work for poor students than that we pauperize them by providing free studentship? It is impossible to exaggerate the harm we do to Indian youth by filling their minds with the false notion that it is ungentlemanly to labour with one’s hands and feet for one’s livelihood or schooling.

The harm done is moral and material, indeed much more moral than material. A free ship lies and should lie like a load upon a conscientious lad’s mind throughout his whole life. No one likes to be reminded in after life that he had to depend upon charity for his education.

Contrarily where is the person who will not recall with pride those days if he had the good fortune to have had them when he worked in a carpentry shop or the like for the sake of education himself – mind, body, and soul? Further, Gandhi presents a very unique concept of university education.

Universities will look after the whole of the field of education and will prepare and approve courses of studies in the various depart­ments of education. No private school should be run without the previous sanction of the respective Universities.

University charters should be given liberally to any body of persons of proved worth and integrity, it being always understood that the Universities will not cost the state anything except that it will bear the cost of running a Central Education Department.

About adult education, Gandhi said that if I had charge of adult education, I should begin with opening the minds of the adult pupils to the greatness and vastness of their country. The villager’s India is contained in his village. If he goes to another village, he talks of his own village as his home. Hindustan is for him a geographical term.

We have no notion of the ignorance prevailing in the villages. The villages know nothing of foreign rule and its evils … they do not know that the foreigner’s presence is due to their own weakness and their ignorance of the power they possess to rid themselves of the foreign rule.

Gandhi continues “My adult education means, therefore, first, true political education of the adult by word of mouth … side by side with the education by mouth will be the literary education. This is itself a specially. Many methods are tried in order to shorten the period of education.”

Gandhi believes that mass illiteracy is India’s sin and shame and must be liquidated…. Of course, the literacy campaign must not begin and end with knowledge of the spread of useful knowledge. The dry knowledge of the three R’s is not even now, it can never be, a permanent part of the village’s life.

They must have knowledge given to them which they must use daily. It must not be thrust upon them. They should have the appetite for it. What they today is something they neither want nor appreciate.

Give the villagers village arithmetic, village geography, village history and the literary knowledge that they must use daily, i.e., reading and writing letters, etc. They will treasure such knowledge and pass on to the other stages. They have no use for books which give them nothing of daily use.

About religious education, Gandhian philosophy is very much clear. Gandhi does not believe that state can concern itself or cope with religious education. He believes that religious education must be the sole concern of religious associations. He is against the mixing up of religion and ethics.

I believe that fundamental ethics is common to all religions. Teaching of fundamental ethics is undoubtedly a function of the state. By religion I have not in mind fundamental ethics but what goes by the name of denominationalism.

We have suffered enough from State-aided religion and a State Church. A society or a group, which depends partly or wholly on State aid for the existence of its religion, does not deserve, or, better still, does not have any religion worth the name.

By explaining the curriculum of religious education, Gandhi said that it should include a study of the tenets of faith other than one’s. For this purpose the students should be trained to cultivate the habit of understanding and appreciating the doctrines of various great religions of the world in a spirit of reverence and broad-minded tolerance.

This, if properly done, would help to give them a spiritual assurance and a better appreciation of their own religion … there is one rule, however, which should always be kept in mind while studying all great religion and, that is, that one should study them only through the writings of known votaries of the respective religions.

As for women’s education, Gandhi was not very much sure whether it should be different from men’s and when it should begin. But he was a firm supporter that women should have the same facilities as men and even special facilities where necessary.

The most important aspect of the Gandhian philosophy of education is the role played by teachers. For Gandhi, all teachers should essentially be men of character. Even if teacher is not an expert in his subject, he must be a man of character.

The teacher who is concerned only with syllabus to be taught, not with the character of his student, he would not be called as true teacher at all. Thus, education of character is much more important than the literary education. Apart from a man of character, a teacher must also be very much aware about the new development in his field. A teacher should always be ready for new initiative.

… Every teacher, if he is to do full justice to his pupils, will have to prepare the daily lesson from the material available to him. This, too he will have to suit to the special requirements of his class. Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated. This can never be done by packing ill-assorted and unwar­ranted information into the heads of the pupils.

It means, a teacher should lead a more scholastic life than a student. A good teacher should always try to evolve new and more better ways of teaching so that the students can raise questions and the teacher should try to solve them in a more gentle and intelligent way.

Like teacher’s responsibility, Gandhi also stresses on student’s sense of duty. He tells that students should keep their faith in their teachers. A good and healthy teacher-student relationship would be there in Gandhian scheme of education.

The above scheme of education in Gandhian thought shows that education system, which is very much unique here, will play vibrant role for societal reconstruction. As Gandhi said that the aim of education should be to reconstruct the whole society and not only a student. New society will be created by a new education system.

This system will definitely be not partial or individual in nature but it would be totally comprehensive and balanced one. It will produce such a kind of curious students who are really devoted for the devel­opment of their society.

Position of Women :

In the plan of life based on non-violence, women have as much right to shape their own destiny as men. But as every right in a non-violent society proceeds from the previous performance of a duty, it follows that rules of social conduct must be framed by mutual cooperation and constitution.

The non-violent society would be based on the following principle:

Woman is the companion of man gifted with equal mental capac­ities, she has the right to participate in every minute detail in the activities of man and she has an equal right of freedom and liberty with him. She is entitled to a supreme place in her own sphere of activity as man is in his.

This ought to be the natural condition of things and not as a result only of learning to read and write. By sheer force of a vicious custom, even the most ignorant and worthless men have been enjoying a superiority over women which they do not deserve and ought not to have.

Many of our movements stop half way because of the conditions of our women. Much of our work alone does not yield appropriate results; our lot is like that of the penny-wise and pound foolish trader who does not employ enough capital in his business. Gandhi tried to see the difference between the sexes in wider perspective and kept his faith in fundamental unity. He was of the opinion that both of them are the creation of God.

My own opinion is that, just as fundamentally man and woman are one; their problem must be one in essence. The two live the same lives have the same feelings. Each is a complement of the other. The one cannot live without the other’s active help. Nevertheless there is no doubt that at some point there is bifurcation.

Whilst both are fundamentally one, it is also equally true that in the form there is a vital difference between the two. Hence, the vocation of the two also must be different. The duty of motherhood, which the vast majority of women will always undertake, requires qualities which man need not possess.

She is passive, he is active. She is essentially mistress of the house. He is the breadwinner; she is the keeper and distributor of the bread. She is the caretaker in every sense of the term. The art of bringing up the infants of the race is her special and sole prerog­ative. Without her care the race would become extinct.

For Gandhi, equality of sexes does not mean equality of occupa­tions. Nature has created sexes as complements of each other. Their functions are defined as their forms. Gandhi was never in favour of the modern conception of equality of occupations. There may be no legal bar against a woman hunting or wielding a lance. But she instinctively recoils from a function that belongs to man.

It shows that in Gandhian philosophy man and woman are of equal rank but they are not identical. They are a peerless pair being supplementary to one another. Each helps the other, so that without the one the existence of the other cannot be expected, and therefore it follows as a necessary corollary from these facts that anything that impairs the status of either will involve the equal ruination of both.

Actually, Gandhi was of the view that man and woman are different in their physical construction, thus their nature and qualities are different. That is why, their education and workplace will automatically be different from each other.

In framing any scheme of women’s education this cordial truth must be constantly kept in mind. Man is supreme in the outward activities of a married pair and, therefore, it is the fitness of things that he should have a greater knowledge thereof. For Gandhi, home life is entirely the sphere of women and, therefore, in domestic affairs, in the upbringing and education of children, women ought to have more knowledge. Not that knowledge should be divided into watertight compartments, or that some branches of knowledge should be closed to any-one, but unless courses of instruction are based on a discriminating appreciation of these basic principles, the fullest life of man and woman cannot be developed.

Gandhi thought that it was the irrational social norms and practices which have degraded women’s position in the society. Accordingly, the legal and customary status of women is bad enough throughout and demands radical alteration.

Legislation has been mostly the handiwork of man; and man has not always been fair and discriminating in performing that self-appointed task. The largest part of our effort, in promoting the regeneration of women, should be directed towards remaining those blemishes which are represented in our Shastras as the necessary and ingrained charac­teristics of women. Who will attempt this and how?

Gandhi further added,

In my humble opinion, in order to make the attempt we will have to produce women, pure, firm and self-controlled as Sita, Damayanti and Draupadi. If we do produce them, such modem sisters will have the same authority as the Shastras. We will feel ashamed of the stray reflections on them in our Smritis, and will soon forget them.

Such revolutions have occurred in Hinduism in the past, and will still take place in future, leading to the stability of our faith,

In this way, in a unique non-violent and truthful world order, women will play a important role. By flourishing their feminine qualities women will contribute their essential role in the devel­opment of the society. Gandhi said that when a woman whom we all call abala becomes sabala, all those who are helpless will become powerful. Thus, women are more responsible for the societal devel­opment.

Hence, Gandhi presented a very comprehensive and balanced model of a new world order, which is morally oriented and spiritually directed. All the aspects of this society, whether it is politics, economics, education, religion etc., are aimed at flourishing human values.

For Gandhi all our social behaviour is oriented towards the implementation of truthful and non-violent society. Thus, politics, economics, education etc. will be assumed as instruments to achieve this aim. Therefore, all these different aspects of society are interlinked.

There is fundamental unity among these institutions and all of them are looking towards the development of truthful and non-violent society. Only a comprehensive physical, moral and spiritual enhancement of society will make it a just and all-encompassing society.

The above analytical discussion reveals that truth and non-violence, which may seem meta-narratives in its nature, are the basis of Gandhian philosophy. Gandhi believes that only truth and non-violence are the ultimate reality and therefore the last objective of life to be achieved. But, postmodernist thinkers are contrary to any conception of meta-narratives whether it is truth, culture or discourse on identity.

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Gandhian Thought: Truth and Non-violence, Satyagraha, Ends and Means, Religion and Politics

essay competition on truth and non violence

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was ‘a man of millennium’ who imparts the lesson of truth, Non- violence and peace. The philosophy and ideology is relevant still today.The philosophy of Gandhi was based on truth, sacrifice, non- violence selfless service and cooperation. In modern times, nonviolent methods of action have been a powerful tool for social protest. According to Gandhi one should be brave and not a coward. He should present his views, suggestions and thoughts without being violent. One should fight a war with the weapons of truth and non violence. Gandhi said that ‘There is no god higher than truth’. According to Gandhi’s thoughts nonviolence is ultimate solution of every kind of problem in the world. Gandhi was single person who fought against the British with the weapons of truth and Non-violence by persuading countrymen to walk on the path of non-violence. Gandhi leading a decades-long nonviolent struggle against British rule in India, which eventually helped India, wins its independence in 1947. By the efforts of Gandhi India became independent. Gandhi initiated non violence activities like Quit India movement and non-operation movement. Gandhi could never have done what he did alone, but with his ability to identify a seed here, a seed there and nurture it, he was able to create a forest of human change. He understood that it was not enough to be a leader, but to create leaders.

In quite simple and clear words, Gandhism consists of the ideas, which Mahatma Gandhi put forth before human world. Along with that, to the maximum possible extent, Mahatma Gandhi treated his individual life in accordance with these ideas. Clearly; Gandhism is a mixture of Gandhi’s concepts and practices. The basic ground ship of Gandhism happens to be non-violence. The non-violence is the most ancient eternal value. This non-violence is the ground of ancient-most civilization and culture of India.Mahatma Gandhi said on this very account while making his concepts and practices based on non-violence: ‘I have nothing new to teach you’ Truth and non-violence are as old as hill. As we know, non-violence and truth are two sides of the same coin. After knowing Gandhism, it is imperative for us to know clearly the concept of non-violence also as it accords the ground for Gandhism. Gandhi’s importance in the political world scenario is twofold. First, he retrieved non-violence as a powerful political tool and secondly manifestation of a higher spiritual goal, culmination in world peace. For Gandhi, means were as important as the end and there could be only one means – that of non-violence.

essay competition on truth and non violence

Presently a big portion of the world happens to be under Democratic system of Government. Theoretically, this system stands out to be the best up to now. This is a truth. It is the best because people are connected with it directly or indirectly at every level. Not only this, it is this very system, which provides maximum opportunities of public progress and development. People can themselves decide in this system the mode of their welfare. However, even though being theoretically the best system of government, if we peruse the democratic nations, we first of all find that there is non-equal development of the citizens. We subsequently find that these nations are more or less victimized by regionalism. They have problem relating to language. They are under clutches of terrorism and communalism. There is also the problem of negation of human rights in these nations. There are other vivid problems akin to mention above and peace is far away so long as these problems exist. All citizens must have equal development and they should have communal harmony towards making all citizens collective and unified partners in progress. But, in reality, it is not so. It is essential that the nations of democratic system of government should be free from above-mentioned problems, must be capable of ensuring equal development of their all citizens and the citizens concerned must march forward on path of progress in unified way along with rendering contribution to world peace.

Gandhi demonstrated to a world, weary with wars and continuing destruction that adherence to Truth and Non-violence is not meant for individuals alone but can be applied in global affairs too. Gandhi’s vision for the country and his dreams for the community as a whole still hold good for India. He got the community to absorb and reflect true values of humanity and to participate in tasks that would promote the greater good. These issues are still relevant to what free India is and represents. The main cause of worry today is intolerance and hatred leading to violence and it is here the values of Gandhi need to be adhered to with more passion.

Gandhian Strategy

Gandhian strategy is mainly comprised with:

Truth and honesty

Non-violence

Co-operation

Peace and love

Satyagraha – A holistic approach towards life, based on the ideals of truth and moral courage.

Satyagraha’s goal is winning over people’s hearts, and this can be achieved only with tremendous patience, Satyagraha is more than a political tool of resistance. The similarities of the Satyagraha to some of the greatest philosophical and religious tenets of the world have been observed and much written about. However, in the specific context of India, Satyagraha was an immense influence. It went a long way in instilling among the Indians a dignity for hard labor and mutual respect. In the traditional Indian society torn apart by caste and creed based discriminations, Satyagraha stated that no work was lowly. It championed secularism and went a long way in eradicating untouchability from the heart of India’s typically stratified society. Satyagraha glorified the role of women as an important member of the society. All in all, Satyagraha instilled in the Indian mind a dignity and a self respect that is yet unprecedented in its modern history. Gandhi’s system of Satyagraha was based on nonviolence, non-cooperation, truth and honesty. Gandhi used non violence in India’s freedom struggle as main weapon and India became independent from British rule.

Truth – The most powerful weapon.

Gandhism is more about the spirit of Gandhi’s journey to discover the truth, than what he finally considered to be the truth. It is the foundation of Gandhi’s teachings, and the spirit of his whole life to examine and understand for oneself, and not take anybody or any ideology for granted. Gandhi said: ‘The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction’. Truth or ‘Satya’ was the sovereign principle of Mahatma Gandhi’s life. The Mahatma’s life was an eternal conquest to discover truth and his journey to that end was marked by experiments on himself and learning from his own mistakes. Fittingly his autobiography was titled ‘My Experiments with Truth.’ Gandhi strictly maintained that the concept of truth is above and beyond of all other considerations and one must unfailingly embrace truth throughout one’s life. Gandhi pioneered the term Satyagraha which literally translates to ‘an endeavor for truth . ‘In the context of Indian freedom movement, Satyagraha meant the resistance to the British oppression through mass civil obedience. The tenets of Truth or Satya and nonviolence were pivotal to the Satyagraha movement and Gandhi ensured that the millions of Indians seeking an end to British rule adhered to these basic principles steadfastly.

Non-violence is ever lasting.

Gandhian strategy is the collection of inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy. The fundamentals of Gandhi’s non violence theory, Jainism and Buddhism were the most important influence. Both Jainism and Buddhism preached non-violence as the basic principal of existence. Gandhi was also influenced By Bhagvad Gita with its stress on non attachment and selfless action, Christianity, along with its massage of love and compassion, extended even to one’s enemies, was another important influence on Gandhi’s life. Gandhi’s life was based on truth, honesty and moral courage.

Mahatma Gandhi was great national hero, who served the nation with truth and non violence. Gandhi was against violence. He always disliked war on the ground of its violent nature. That’s why when the Second World War began in 1939; he opposed the stand of British government dragging India into war without consulting Indian leaders. Gandhi was in favor of non violence; therefore he was against in any cooperation in war efforts. According to Gandhi the use of non violence consists of anger, selfishness, hatred and enmity. According to him violence cannot do anything good to human beings. A Gandhian strategy for confronting terrorism, therefore, would consist of the following:

Stop an act of violence in its tracks. The effort to do so should be nonviolent but forceful. To focus solely on acts of terrorism, Gandhi argued, would be like being concerned with weapons in an effort to stop the spread of racial hatred. Gandhi thought the sensible approach would be to confront the ideas and alleviate the conditions that motivated people to undertake such desperate operations in the first place. As we know, non-violence and truth go side by side. After knowing Gandhism, it is imperative for us to know clearly the concept of non-violence also as it accords the ground for Gandhism.

For Gandhi, means were as important as the end and there could be only one means- that of non-violence. What is non-violence? Ordinarily, we attribute nonviolence as a dictum that prescribes non-snatching of anyone’s life. Really, this is not complete derivation pertaining to the concept of non-violence. Non-violence is quite opposite to violence. As such, it would be better to know the position relating to violence in order to know non-violence and to be in knowledge of its meaning. According to a Jain scholar: ‘Whenever, we hurt some other living being through our thought, utterance or action under non-cordial stipulation and non-apt learning, such an impure spirit or act of destroying life of some other one, including the impure tendency, utterance or presuming, is taken to be full of vice of violence. In such a situation, even if there is no sort of violence externally, it intrinsically ipso facto remains a tendency of violence’. There are three categories of violence:-

When we hit physically anybody.

When we think wrong and feel jealous with anybody.

When we aggressively speak and abuse to anybody.

All these categories create negative energy in human body. The negative energy has adverse affect on human body. Gandhi criticized violence. It is a body of ideas and principles that describes the inspiration, vision and the life work of Gandhi. It is particularly associated with his contributions to the idea and practice of non violence resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance. The term “Gandhism” also encompasses what Gandhi’s ideas, words and actions mean to people around the world, and how they used them for guidance in building their own future.  Gandhism also permeates into the realm of the individual human being, non-political and nonsocial. A Gandhian can mean either an individual who follows, or a specific philosophy which is attributed to, Gandhism.

In context of non-violence being perpetual, Mahatma Gandhi states, ‘When we peruse the era from beginning unto now relating to the period for which we gain historical evidence, we find that man has been ultimately treading path of nonviolence’. It is, as such, that non-violence came into existence along with man. In case it has not been with man from the very beginning, there might have been self-doom by man.  As Martin Luther King Jr. said: “The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and non-existence.”

However, it has not been that and not only human race is alive in such a huge number but there has been gradual enhancement in development and nearness in spite of presence of various obstacles and nuisances. This could never have been, but because non-violence is perpetual, it happened. Mahatma Gandhi was against any form of exploitation and injustice. According to him, evils must be opposed at any cost. But he insisted that the weapons must be non violent and moral ones. The adoption of peaceful method made one superior and put the enemy at a disadvantage but the condition is the opponent must be dealt with mutual respect and love. Gandhi believed that only through love an enemy could be permanently won. Non violence is not passive. It is active, creative, provocative and challenging. Gandhi described non-violence as ‘A force more powerful than all the weapons of world combined’. Non violence is the greatest and most active force in the world. Gandhi wrote, It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of humanity. When we tap into the spirit of non-violence, it becomes contagious and can topple empires. In relation to violence, there are two options in the world. These options are, we fight back or run away. Non violence gives us third option: creative active, peaceful resistance to injustice. Non violence means standing unmoving against injustice until injustice is transformed into justice. Non-violence dose not harm to others and does not adversely affect other directly .but it works internally. Instead of killing others, we should do in the nonviolent struggle for justice and human rights. Non-violence begins in the heart then it moves out to our families, local communities, cities, nation and world.

Gandhi thought, debased those who adopted it. A violent posture adopted by public authorities could lead to a civil order based on coercion. For this reason Gandhi insisted on means consistent with the moral goals of those engaged in the conflict.

Gandhi dreamed of a new world of non-violence with overall peaceful environment. Non-violence is a universal phenomenon and it has great relevance and significance. It is the ultimate solution of all kinds of problems and conflicts in the society, nation and world. However, its result depends upon its understanding and proper application. The present scenario of violence and exploitation all over the world has raised an important issue. Any nation which has been suffered with communalism, dictatorship, corruption and power games really needs to go back to Gandhi’s conviction of nonviolence and truth as his mission. By adopting nonviolence, social, political, economic and religious conflicts shall be removed. Undoubtedly, the social doctrine of non violence that has emerged from Gandhian ideas has now become the key to forge and sustain the new social and political order. Today, there is need to adopt Ghandhian philosophy and ideology in overall world to remove all kind of problems and creating peaceful environment. Gandhi is not the past, he is the future. He is an early sign of what we can be.

Presently a big portion of the world happens to be under Democratic system of Government. Theoretically, this system stands out to be the best up to now. This is a truth. It is the best because people are connected with it directly or indirectly at every level. Not only this, it is this very system, which provides maximum opportunities of public progress and development. People can themselves decide in this system the mode of their welfare. However, even though being theoretically the best system of government, if we peruse the democratic nations, we first of all find that there is non-equal development of the citizens. We subsequently find that these nations are more or less victimized by regionalism. They have problem relating to language. They are under clutches of terrorism and communalism. There is also the problem of negation of human rights in these nations. There are other vivid problems akin to mention above and peace is far away so long as these problems exist. These nations should get themselves rid of these problems, all citizens of them must have equal development and they should have communal harmony towards making all citizens collective and unified partners in progress. But, in reality, it is not so.

It is essential that the nations of democratic system of government should be free from above-mentioned problems, must be capable of ensuring equal development of their all citizens and the citizens concerned must march forward on path of progress in unified way along with rendering contribution to world peace. Gandhism is very much contextual today on this accord. It is significant.

Gandhi inspires an alternative vision of politics and resistance at a time when oppression is not only getting more overt and physical but also more insidious. His ideology of nonviolence is a good point to start from. It may not succeed, but it opens a world of possibilities and encourages us to think outside the box. His life also illustrates how radical ideas are first dismissed, only to be tested and embraced later. Gandhi demonstrated to a World, weary with wars and continuing destruction that adherence to Truth and Non-violence is not meant for individuals alone but can be applied in global affairs too. Gandhi’s vision for the country and his dreams for the community as a whole still hold good for India. He got the community to assimilate and reflect true values of humanity and to participate in tasks that would promote the greater good. These issues are still relevant to what free India is and represents. The main cause of worry today is intolerance and hatred leading to violence and it is here the values of Gandhi need to be adhered to with more passion. He is relevant not yesterday or today but forever!!

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  1. Essay on Truth and Non-violence

    Essay on Truth and Non-violence. This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students' samples. Mahatma Gandhi believed equality and peace need the complete truth to be achieved. He began to care deeply about this even at a younger age.

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    If Ahimsa is the means, then Truth is the end. It is Ahimsa that forms the base of the search for Truth. The goal of Truth is not to embarrass the wrong-doer but to bring a change of heart, and the aim of Non-Violence is not limited to non-injury but also infinite love for the other. As Gandhi states, "With truth combined with Ahimsa, you can ...

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    Gandhi personified this message in life and spirit. This essay highlights the essence of non-violent attitude and, through the Gandhian framework, shows how it logically leads to the path of truth. The truth that shall set us free, from maladies of 'misconceived notions' and 'chaotic understanding of events'.

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    To Gandhi, non-violence was not a negative concept but a positive sense of love. During the freedom struggle, Gandhi introduced the spirit of Satyagraha to the world. Whenever we think of Mahatma Gandhi, two words come to our mind - truth and non-violence - as he was a staunch believer in these two ideals. Born on October 2, 1869, Gandhi is ...

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    Gandhiji's martyrdom itself is caused to resurrect his principles and shine all over the world in eternity. Thus, his position as an apostle of truth, non-violence and tolerance in the political arena of 20th century is in its zenith. Works Cited. Copley, Antony, Gandhi against the Tide, 1987, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

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    The Essay Writing Competition at GDC Darhal was not merely an academic exercise but a profound journey into the principles that continue to inspire generations and remind us of the transformative power of truth and non-violence. Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Early Times.

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    Truth and Nonviolence: New Dimensions. - By R.R. Diwakar*. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills, Gandhi said. What he had done, he added, was only to apply them to life and its problems. There is no end to the repetition of these two words and comments thereon in his speeches and writings. The meanings he read into them and the ...

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    5 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.

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    Essay on Non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhiji came on this earth with his message of truth and non-violence (ahimsa) at a time when the forces of aggression and violence reigned supreme on earth. Mahatma Gandhi taught us what Christ and Buddha had longed to teach long ago. He became an immortal spirit who guides us through the path ...

  20. Truth and Non-Violence: A Foundation of a New World Order

    In the new world order, which will be based on the foundations of truth and non-violence, education will also play a very healthy and positive role. For Gandhi, to establish a new society, a new approach to education will be required. That is why; he did a very serious and continuous effort with his fellow-beings.

  21. Essay on Non-Violence For Students in English

    Gandhian non-violence is a Hebraic attitude of life. It seeks to leave the world a little better than what we found it. It seeks to interfere in the affairs of others, in the interests of truth and justice. It is no mere passive or stoic moral courage- but the active, driving force of a spirit to seek redress of moral grievances".

  22. Essay on Gandhiji and Non-Violence

    The Government of India in 1948 as usual, kept military Forces in alerted condition. Otherwise how Gandhi could have permitted the use of "violence" (use of armed personnel) to repel the aggression. Violence or Army also like non-violence requires discipline, preparation, and training. Few would agree that all "violence" (power) is used ...

  23. Gandhian Thought: Truth and Non-violence, Satyagraha, Ends and Means

    Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was 'a man of millennium' who imparts the lesson of truth, Non- violence and peace. The philosophy and ideology is relevant still today.The philosophy of Gandhi was based on truth, sacrifice, non- violence selfless service and cooperation. In modern times, nonviolent methods of action have been a powerful tool for social protest. ...