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
