Gandhi and Non violence, Its Impact and Relevance.

             Gandhi and Non violence, Its Impact and Relevance.  

Just-violence;  A Transitional Approach Between Violence and Non Violence. 

 Deepak Sharma

“It is good to swim in the waters of tradition, but to sink in them is suicide”, Gandhi said once.  He was true in the sense that its nothing but suicidal to keep following the traditions without any logical thinking and reasoning.  The same doctrine applies to the principles of Gandhi as well, which ought to be first examined and study reasonably before acknowledging and establishing its relevance in the contemporary world, as without doing so could also be suicidal for the humankind.

Are principles of Gandhi, in modern times, relevant in Toto or only some of them hold any significance and others not? To understand this we must dissect the individual principles of Gandhi and study each principle in isolation to understand its significance in the modern times, then to just accept all principles, as a matter of tradition, though many of them may not be relevant in today’s world.  When we study the principles in totality, we risk accepting the irrelevant also, though mistakenly. A person considered as ‘Mahatma ‘ may have some bad qualities in him also (he is also a human being after all) , but our intense devotion  for  him, tend us to overlook the bad elements in him and we start accepting bad in him as good, first subconsciously and then consciously . We should be reasoned to take the good leaving behind the bad, like we throw out the outer cover of banana and eat the pulp only to enjoy the benefits of eating it.

Gandhi offered many principles to the world apart from the principle of non violence, which includes the principle of brotherhood, humanity, self reliance economically and untouchability. His idea of preaching untouchablity is worth appreciating as he never asked the Harijans to fight for their rights but rather asked the upper casts to profess and perform their moral duties towards their Harijan brothers. His ideas and efforts for making India self reliant on its resources for her needs is also worth acknowledging and deserves admiration.  India is undoubtedly indebted to Gandhi for his hard work and pain he suffered for his efforts to remove untouchability and to inculcate the practice of cleanliness among common Indian. But his idea of non violence has caused more harm to the world in general and India in particular than any good caused from his any other principle.

Non violence for Gandhi meant no violence irrespective of harm done but It seems Gandhi himself was confused in his this widely advocated idea of non violence . He contradicted his philosophy of non violence himself when he first supported ‘Khilafat Movement’ initiated by Muslims and then to Britishers by offering them support during second world war.  He acted more politically and shrewdly then philosophically while defining non violence to the gullible Indians. In the absence of clarity and reasoned thought, violence and just violence (lawful violence) has been misunderstood and was considered as one and the same thing.  Gandhi during his life time and his unreasoned followers after his death, bluntly kept changing the definition of non violence and violence as per their own designs and desires. If any harm done to a person irrespective of his act is violence then Why the followers of the champion of non violence remained mum and cold on the hanging of Nathu Ram Godse ? Was not hanging a violence?. Why did not they uphold the principle of non violence and set an example to the mankind by advocating amnesty to him for the wrong he did?. The reason is simple and synchronizes   with the law of nature, that the wrongdoer must be punished by lawful violence. The civilized society will cease to exist if the wrong doer is not punished.  Gandhian principle of non violence was irrelevant at that time also and is still irrelevant in the modern world .

The birth of Gandhi in India and subsequent promotion to his principles of non violence has made India a de facto messenger of non violence to the world. The world expects India to deliver on non violence.  For every wrong committed to India by any one, be it by hostile and treacherous neighbor like Pakistan,   separatists and insurgents of Kashmir and north east, or by naxalites, the world and so called preachers of non violence and human rights, expect India  to bear and tolerate even if it bleed to perish, as the apostle  of non violence was born  here and India has the moral duty to set examples to the world that India is upholding the principles of non violence. The expectation of the world has made India a cozy home for many preachers of non violence and advocates of human rights . India is already paying the price of it, when any action in defence is taken by India against insurgents and  separatists of Kashmir, north east and naxalities, it is taken as gross human rights violation and against the principles of non violence,   whereas no such voice is raised by any preacher of non violence and advocate of human rights against the atrocities done by Pakistan on the people of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (Pok) and Blauchistan, no voice against ISIS in Syria and absolutely no voice against America for what it did in Iraq and Vietnam,  as Gandhi was destined to born in India only . 

What is to be understood is that the  Non violence and Violence compliments each other as one cannot exist without another. The element of violence and non violence exists in the same human being, its inherent, it is just the degree  which makes him non violent or violent.  It is very important to understand that the principle of non violence if works, it works only because of the fear of just violence.  

Without the fear of just violence the principle of non violence fails to sustain and this fear of just violence by nature also exists in every human being which coerce him to be civilized and non violent  .  

We can understand this by taking an example , a non violent protest is held by some individuals for their rightful demands from some government agency ,  if that government agency agrees to their demands, that will be because of the fear of just violence from the protesters in the event of non agreeing to their demands and the protesters will remain non violent because of the fear of just violence from that Government agency .  Similarly if any of Gandhi’s non violent movement had succeeded (though most of it remained unsuccessful ), it was succeeded because of the fear of just violence in the minds of the tyrants, the  Britishers . It is the fear of just violence that makes non violence work. It is similar to what the world recognizes as Just war, the war which is justified to suppress the unjustified.

By saying “ de di tuney azadi bina khadag bina dal”, that India got independence because of Gandhi and its principles of non violence,   are not we actually insulting the supreme sacrifices made by our martyrs like Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh,  Chandra Sekhar Azad and others who believed in just violence for attaining freedom of their motherland from the clutches of oppressors  . At present times , even in global scenario,  If Gandhian principle of non violence is to be believed ,then Russian  fighter jets  instead of dropping bombs and missiles in Syria against ISIS ,should have dropped  colorful pamphlets  with  teachings of Gandhian principles of non violence to make them compassionate and humane.

Non violence is not about abstaining from violence but to have compassion and empathy for the one who believe in non violence, Violence is a fundamental of the human condition, whereas nonviolence is merely a rarified response to that reality. The Gandhian ideology of non-violence was never relevant. Not even back when it was thought to be relevant. The idea that India won it's freedom because of Gandhian ideology of non-violence is to have a simplistic view of history. There is more to India's struggle for freedom than Gandhi’s principles of non violence , he failed to prescribe an effective panacea against violence, and this is a bitter reality!

Deepak Sharma is an RTI activist and can be e.mailed [a] rtiactjk@gmail.com