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Gandhi
in the Globalised Context
By
Dr.
N. Radhakrishnan
Hon. Ambassador, Soka University of
America
Chairman, Indian Council for Gandhian Studies
TFF
Associate
February 4, 2003
The fast-emerging global socio-political and
scientific scenario is an eloquent reminder of the speed
with which the forces released by science and technology
and aided by human greed has dismantled almost at one
stroke all humanity hitherto believed invincible. Nothing
is sacrosanct now. The geopolitical compulsions and the
mad frenzy of both developed and developing nations, to
appropriate for themselves all what they can lay their
hands on, reminds us of the haste and anxiety seen among
the nocturnal thieves to plunder completely and decamp
with the booty before anyone wakes up in the house. It
appears that a kind of colonial instinct also guides
modern man in all his activities. Only the label changes,
the bottle and the decoction continue to be the same.
The Major Challenges
It appears that among the major challenges of the
twenty-first century will be :
i) Taming the monster of violence and keeping it
within limits besides eliminating terrorism.
ii) Ensuring equitable distribution of wealth and
natural resources; also to cry a halt to the exploitation
and insensitivity shown in preserving balance in
nature.
iii) Elimination of poverty and hunger.
iv) Increasing reliance of rulers and politicians on
religious fundamentalist elements and forces to capture
power and sustain themselves in power by exploiting
religious sentiments, and
v) Decline of moral, spiritual and ethical
considerations and extending tentacles of consumerism and
materialism.
Of all these, the most disturbing is the alarming
manner in which violence is spreading - spreading like a
cancer. The biggest challenge to the present century will
be how to tame this monster. Besides eating into the
vitals of all what humanity has been able to achieve, it
threatens to hold humanity to ransom and is in the
driver's seat now. The chilling factor in this sordid and
frightening scenario is the speed with which violence has
sent shock waves everywhere. Violence is no longer the
luxury of the industrialised or developed nations or
those kept under long years of colonial rule but it is
everywhere. Let us look at what the National Centre of
Education Statistics of the Department of Education in
Washington DC pointed out at a news conference:
- 100,000 children take a gun to school every day
(Children's Defence Fund says as many as 135,000)
- 160,000 will miss school because of fear of
injury
320,000 per month, 60,000 per day
- 2,000 young people attacked before every hour in a
working day
282,000 per month, 14,100 per day
- 900 teachers threatened and nearly 40 attacked per
hour
125, 000 Threatened each month
8,250 threatened per day
5, 200 physically attacked each month
260 per day
37 per hour
- Every 36 minutes - a child is killed or injured by a
firearm - over 14,000 per year.
- 1986 -1990 - 250 hostage incidents - using guns - in
35 states.
The socio-economic and political scenario all over the
world has undergone tremendous changes during the last
five decades and a new culture has taken over and the
talks about the global village has also seem to have
landed humanity in a new mess-up in the sense many do not
know what all these things are. Traditional values,
concerns and strivings seem to have been replaced by a
new set of attitudes and life-style which are steeped in
materialism and consumerism, assiduously propagated by
the champions of unlimited material progress and values,
and attitudes associated with Gandhi and other
visionaries are being reduced to topics for academic
discussion. Gandhian scholars, peace activists,
development experts, scholars and writers of eminence are
busy looking at the legacy of Gandhi, particularly the
holistic vision of Gandhi and the emphasis and the
strategies associated with him, against the background of
the emerging challenges in various fields in the
post-Gandhian period.
Development: New Perceptions
All of a sudden, economics has pushed all other
branches of human endeavour. Religions and ethical values
that have been nourishing and sustaining civilisations
for centuries are no longer of any significance.
Traditional societies are breaking-up, and there is a
spread of the cult of violence. Nurturing of unprincipled
political order and fostering irrelevant cultural
semantics and appearance of militarisation in a new garb
and stalking of dehumanising poverty and malnutrition
which still affect more than one third of the global
community are of no concern to the managers of human
destiny now. The general discrimination despite all brave
talks and initiatives, the apathy and the kind of
cynicism with which morality and ethics are being viewed
and abused, the callous indifference shown to Mother
Earth and the manner in which nature is being exploited
thinking that there is inexhaustible wealth hidden
beneath the surface and many similar disturbing and
unhealthy trends with which modern civilisation is
associated with, have been sending dangerous signals and
all those who care for human survival are desperately
looking for signals which would send some rays of hope -
hope that every thing is not lost and that it is not too
late.
And it appears that at one go, humanity has been
seized by those who believe that economic growth is the
real index of both development and real power. While the
power of money was never under-estimated anywhere, never
before in human history everything is being measured in
terms of per capita income or GNP or the relative
purchasing power or such other material considerations.
This pre-occupation on the part of the
twentieth-century-man, which has created a situation
where family ties, inter-personal, cultural, ethical,
even religious and social aspects have been relegated to
the background, is really sending shock waves all around.
No body seems to be worried about the terrific manner in
which all aspects that sustain humanity and regulate
growth and other issues receive scant attention from
those who control our lives. This has become a universal
phenomenon and no society or country can feel that the
situation is different with them. All what we hear is the
talk about sharing of wealth, arms reduction and nuclear
non-proliferation by those nations who produce all lethal
weapons that could wipe out humanity several times in the
event of a war and advocating acceptance of NPT, which
several countries like India genuinely feel
discriminatory in its present form. The warning and
spirited campaigns undertaken by the environmentalists to
stop many of the harmful steps by the managers of our
destiny receive practically no attention and
unfortunately these warnings by and large, remain cries
in the wilderness.
Degradation of human being to the level of a
commodity
Another frightening aspect is the sad fact that man is
nowhere in the reckoning now. He has been pitiably
reduced to the status of a consumer and he is first and
last consumer now. His purchasing power is all that
matters. Similarly, the purchasing power of a nation is
all what the other nation now cares for. The talk in the
world capitals are all centred on the biggest markets in
the world and our newspapers devote more than a bulk of
their space for market trends, stock markets and bullion
rates while a bulk of the remaining space in the news
papers deal with violence of various forms, political
gossips, coup attempts, private life of celebrities and
such other hot items which would ensure a steady interest
among the readers. The readers, who are caught in the web
of a violent culture and are force-fed by the sweetmeat
provided by an enticing consumeristic culture, are also
satisfied by the 'kick' they get by reading these items.
Why should they waste their time on news and features
about culture, art or development? This attitude,
unfortunately, seems to be gaining ground.
The relevance of Gandhi or for that matter any body
else has to be examined against these emerging trends.
The galloping horses of humanity, which are at the moment
being goaded and whipped to run as fast as they could in
order to win the coveted place of material achievements,
have to be reigned in by the collective assertion by an
awakened humanity which has the right to exist. But then,
this will be possible only if we are prepared to ponder
over the immense damage being caused to the edifice of
humanity. It is not even slow poisoning, it is almost
like 'sudden death', to borrow an expression from
football.
It is over five decades since Gandhi was assassinated
and there are all kinds of discussions both in India and
abroad on what Gandhi left for humanity and whether many
of his teaching would survive the test of time. What even
the passionate critic of Gandhi cannot miss is the string
of activities along Gandhian lines one can see in almost
all countries of the world now. If not in very
significant measure, there are very few countries in the
world where something or other in the name of Gandhi is
not being organised. In short, there is a global
nonviolent awakening after Gandhi.
It is widely accepted now that the core of the legacy
Gandhi left for humanity, is that he taught us that truth
is greater than all worldly possessions, and that
slavery, violence, injustice and disparities are
inconsistent with truth. What Gandhi left is not a set of
theoretical formulations, on the contrary, a carefully
evolved vision of an organically sound and mutually
supportive and respecting independent world order. The
six decades of Gandhi's public life in three continents,
spearheading various movements for a new social and
political milieu where all men and women will be treated
as brothers and sisters, demonstrated with convincing
sincerity a revolutionary zeal for change &endash; change
with consent &endash; hitherto un-experimented in
national or international politics. Tolerance, consent,
reconciliation and a profound faith in the unity of all
sentient and nonsentient beings have been the core of the
Gandhian vision of a world where harmony among the
various segments of God's creation would nurture the
essential goodness in each one &endash; both the visible
and invisible threads &endash; uniting the entire
humanity into a single entity. Does this sound Utopian?
Yes, quite a large number of people still believe that
the new social order Gandhi envisioned is too idealistic
and an unattainable utopia only fit enough for academic
and semantic interpretations.
Gandhi's critique of the emerging scenario
Gandhi warned humanity of this dangerous situation as
early as 1909 when he pointed out in the seminal work
'Hind Swaraj', that unprincipled growth will land
humanity on the brink of disaster. Even his own close
disciples raised their eye brows of disagreement when he
said this. The evil that we are to fight is within us and
that we are ignorant of it is the basic problem. Motif
such as give and take, live and let live, love and to be
loved have become clichés in the new dictionary
compiled by the champions of unlimited growth. This can
be possible only if we adopt a holistic vision of life
and ensure equality and justice which presupposes the
simple truth that each individual is unique and we should
respect his individuality and let him maintain his
uniqueness and what applies to an individual should apply
to a nation or at a global level.
Gandhi further warned against a series of social and
political turmoil, ecological devastation and other human
misery that might arise unless modern civilisation takes
care of nature and man tries to live in harmony with
nature and tries to reduce his wants. Unlimited
consumeristic tendencies and callous indifferences to
values will not help humanity to progress towards peace,
he warned. Hatred of all forms, exploitation in whichever
manner it exists, are negation of humanity's basic right
to exist. The Gandhian legacy of simple living in
conformity with the basic rhythm of life typifies the
age-old wisdom of humanity. Gandhi tries to convince
humanity that wars never solved any problem. On the
contrary, reconciliation should help humanity sort out
the various problems. Thus, in Gandhi, as has been
pointed out by many thinkers in different parts of the
world, we have a world leader who dreamt of a warless
world and promoter of a social order where exploitation
and injustice will not become the dominant
tendencies.
Gandhi's experiment in South Africa and its
contemporary relevance
Two of the important factors that brought Gandhi
closer to the millions are the genuine inspiration he was
able to offer to the freedom-loving citizens and the
generation of a feeling among a considerable section of
the masses that he was motivated only by the spirit of
service and not by any personal or ulterior desires. His
South African experiments won him respects from even
those who opposed him and those who never met him or knew
him.
Tolstoy comments that what Gandhi was doing in South
Africa was the most important thing in the world at that
time, were a case in point. Gandhi demonstrated that the
life of a leader should also be open, capable enough to
influence the masses so that they will also emulate the
leader unreservedly. Gandhi did both these with
remarkable success, which in turn resulted in millions
following him like charmed moths. The two settlements
that Gandhi started in South Africa, the Phoenix Ashram
Settlement and the Tolstoy Farm bear eloquent testimony
to the leadership qualities and the visionary nature of
Gandhi which in turn generated great understanding,
sympathy and enthusiasm among almost all dumb Indians and
others in South Africa at the beginning of the twentieth
century. His life, both as an initiator of new
experiments and as a private individual and lawyer of
great promise, were all open. He was against anybody
possessing anything more than what the other person had.
The members of the settlement ate in the common kitchen,
worked in the farm together, their children attended the
general school and nobody entertained or desired to
accumulate or acquire anything of his own. Not that
Gandhi did not have problems in this. It was difficult
for him to convince even his own wife and Gandhi was
harsh when he detected that his wife had a few things of
her own. Gandhi's children were disappointed and even
they nourished an ambition of attending better schools
and pursuing their higher education outside South Africa.
Gandhi resisted all these attempts and insisted on his
children attending the same school where the children of
other members of the settlement were studying. He kept
account of every pie that was spent. He stopped even
charging for his own services as a lawyer. All this, not
only endeared him to his followers but inspired them also
to follow him as far as possible. This naturally resulted
in a kind of joy and willing participation in the cause
he was espousing.
The efficacy of Satyagraha
Back in India, the first major movement Gandhi
launched was in a place called Champaran, near Bodh Gaya,
a place associated with Shakyamuni Buddha. Gandhi's visit
to this sleepy village, where he launched his first
Satyagraha movement, also witnessed joyful participation
of the people in large numbers. He proved that people
will respond to any genuine call for action provided they
are convinced that the issues identified are their own
and one who leads the movement should also be a source of
love, respect and dedication and in Gandhi his followers
found these qualities in abundance.
The Ahmedabad Mill strike, the Salt Satyagraha, the
Non-Cooperation Movement - all witnessed large number of
people jumping into massive Civil Disobedience Movement
sacrificing their wealth and comfort and courting
sufferings, injuries and sacrifice.
The songs sung by those who participated in this
heroic struggle extolled virtues of unprecedented
magnitude. Nothing would deter these people from marching
forward. Jails were filled with satyagrahis and schools
and factories were also converted into temporary jails
having found no room to accommodate the surging and ever
growing number of those who were defying the orders of
the Government. There were instances of prisoners being
sent out of the main land to the Andaman Islands. Facing
bullets and even death did not matter. It was the
conviction, and that too, unmistakable and a grim
determination to march forward like inspired souls to
achieve their goal, that characterised their mood and by
no means could it be said impulsive. That was the spirit
of those heroic days. In this heroic struggle, the
central figures who not only inspired all those who
participated, as also those who proved to be the sheet
anchor of the resurging fighting for self discovery and
articulation of their suppressed voice, were Gandhi and
those inspired by Gandhi. This remarkable achievement was
possible because Gandhi convincingly demonstrated through
his simple life that his identification with the masses
was complete.
Gandhi was not a philosopher in the conventional sense
of the term. His views, mostly based on his profound
understanding of human nature and the insights he
developed from the numerous experiments he conducted with
scientific precision, have been found to be not a
philosopher's articulations but the records of the
experience of a visionary who was searching for ways and
means to lessen tension and promote harmony in the
various spheres of human endeavour. The breathtaking
development of the second half of the present century
proved that Gandhi was correct as Martin Luther King
(JR.) said, "If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is
inescapable. His life, thought and action are inspired by
the vision of a humanity evolving towards a world of
peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own
risk".
The core of Gandhi's scientific humanism
By equating Gandhi with any saint or philosopher who
couched transcendental truth and spoke in riddles
offering a plethora of aphorisms, we will be missing the
essential Gandhi. He was a revolutionary in the sense
that he aimed at changing certain social and political
structures but the means he adopted were not the usual
violent methods associated with revolutions. He offered a
package of alternatives to humanity. His insistence of
nonviolence to violence; persuasion and reconciliation to
end hostilities; trusteeship to end economic injustice;
improvement of the lot of the depressed sections by
abolishing factors that perpetrate social iniquities;
ending man's tyranny on nature by respecting nature as
the protector of human race; limiting one's wants; and
developing equal respect for all religions offered
humanity the blue-print for a holistic vision. Gandhi
convincingly demonstrated through his ashram experiments,
the use of alternative source of energy, appropriate
technology etc. In short, an ardent practitioner of truth
that he was, Gandhi showed to humanity that there are
workable alternatives which will be creative and
sustainable. The only thing in this is that we have to
muster courage to accept it, for it demands self and
collective discipline of various kinds. It is not the
gratuitous and condescending offer of a bit of whatever
we are willing to part with that is required, but a
willing and spontaneous readiness to share with the less
privileged fellowmen and women what one has in excess and
to work for happily ushering a new order. The Gandhian
humanism was not restrictive but transcendental and
scientific. To describe it as revivalist, reflects the
closed minds of those who try to put all creative and
revolutionary ideas and efforts in straight jackets.
It is said in certain quarters that Gandhi was
successful only to a limited extent that too his impact
is felt only in certain cultural context. There is no
denying of the fact that Gandhi was deep-rooted in his
cultural and religious traditions. The phenomenal success
Gandhi registered in the far-away South Africa, fighting
for human rights and civil liberties in the first two
decades of this century and later the adoption of the
Gandhian techniques, if not fully, by Nelson Mandela and
the subsequent revelations made by the former South
African President Mr. De Klerk that he was also
influenced by Gandhi in adopting the path of
reconciliation and forgiveness, certainly show that
Gandhi had not spent twenty-one years in South Africa in
vain.
In the American continent, Martin Luther King's heroic
fight for civil liberties on the Gandhian lines and his
own admission that it was from Gandhi that he learnt his
operational tactics also is not an isolated instance of
the relevance of the Gandhian tactics. The manner in
which the Greens, particularly in Germany, adopted
Gandhian techniques to arouse human consciousness and how
they operationalised their strategy, and the bold
assertions made by Petra Kelly about the way they were
influenced by Gandhi, also indicate that it is not the
cultural traditions of a country or continent that would
make the efficacy of certain philosophy or attitude
viable, but it is the willingness and readiness of people
to react and respond that matters. One can give quite a
few instances from almost all parts of the world to show
how in different measures the Gandhian vision and
approach is found to be an effective weapon in the hands
of freedom fighters and social reformers.
Gandhi at no stage claimed that he was trying to teach
anything new. In fact, he himself said more than once
that he was not involved in any such mission. Truth and
nonviolence, he said, are as old as the hills and he was
only trying to appreciate and understand the marvel and
majesty of both. He said in this connection, "We have to
make truth and nonviolence, not matters for mere
individual practice, but for practice by groups and
communities and national. That at any rate is my dream. I
shall live and die in trying to realise it. My faith
helps me to discover new truths every day. Ahimsa is the
attribute to the soul, therefore life practised by
everybody in all affairs of life".
Dismantling of apartheid - message for rest of the
world to end social discrimination including practice of
untouchability in India
There is a surprising similarity between UNESCO's
statement in its preamble that since wars begin in the
minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences
of peace must be constructed and Mahatma Gandhi's
assertion that the world either progresses with
nonviolence or perishes with violence. Mahatma Gandhi's
heroic work in South Africa for full 21 years and over 32
years of work in India have given humanity a blue print
of strategies for a peaceful transition of humanity where
respect for all forms of life, human dignity,
self-respect and tolerance would characterise humanity's
progress. The year 1994 bore witness to the efficacy of
Gandhi's strategies and philosophy as could be seen from
the manner in which the fight Gandhi began a 100 years
ago in South Africa i.e. in 1903 bearing fruits when the
blacks and the whites in South Africa were able to work
out a satisfactory solution to peaceful transfer of power
which resulted in the holding of elections and Dr.
Mandela taking over the reigns of power.
Spiritualisation of Politics
Gandhi's contribution to the political awakening and
freedom movement in different parts of the world and
adoption of nonviolent strategies, which help both the
opposing groups respect each other's sentiments and
accommodating the views of others, has much in common
with UNESCO's decision to propagate the message of
tolerance for human survival. Asia and the African
continent particularly have seen peaceful transition of
power and social change, thanks to Mahatma Gandhi's
initiative which included different methods. One
important thing that keeps apart Gandhi's teachings and
strategies is the utmost importance Gandhi attached to
pure means to attain lasting ends. Gandhi's attempts to
make politics value based were part of a new world
vision. He emphasised that politics bereft of spiritual
and ethical consideration will not sustain humanity.
The unending savagery of ethnic cleansing in erstwhile
Yugoslavia, rediscovery of war as a " realistic means" to
resolve conflicts, proliferation of sources and targets
of violence and the deepening socio-economic divide
between and within nations despite the widening of the
boundaries of democracy has triggered a new awakening.
This is evident in the quest for a new paradigm rooted in
Gandhian values and a negation of the virtues of
developmentalism, discredited socialism and reformed
capitalism.
Bosnia, the most obvious but not the only conflict,
haunting post-Cold War-Europe, serves as an illustration
of the search for solutions to the many guises of
'barbarism' which have caused the continent to move away
from western intellectual tradition to a deeper study of
Mahatma Gandhi, his philosophy and the contemporary
relevance of his political 'arts' and 'skills'.
With successive multi-nation peace missions coming a
cropper, peace activists, political scientists, social
critics and philosophers are at the force, canvassing
that nonviolence and Gandhian form of intervention alone
hold out hope of political peace.
The most celebrated quote among European peace
activists and scholars is, Gandhi's retort on being asked
his view of western civilisation, " it would be a good
idea".
Extensive research on Gandhi is on in several Western
universities. There is a belief that Gandhi's philosophy
of nonviolence humbles the arrogance of modern
civilisation and values. Pioneering work to delineate
nonviolent ways of intervention for peace and human
rights is gaining acceptance. The question 'what is the
way to peace' is sought to be answered in Gandhian dictum
&endash; " There is no way to peace, peace is the way".
Getting this message across is not easy in a milieu where
even peace-keeping is militarised and Gandhian social and
political values are ignored as archaic. But that is
precisely what the whole political revival and
intellectual ferment is about.
Gandhi and global nonviolent awakening
Why is the world turning to Gandhi? The reasons are
many. The ideological battle lines of the Cold War
between competing social orders have disappeared with the
demolition of the Berlin Wall and the demise of
socialism. This has resulted in a vacuum, which
discourages exploration of alternatives. That the model
of development being imposed by elites is removed from
popular aspirations, is borne out by the success of the
Green movement. The success of the Greens underscores the
failure and rejection of the Western model of development
against which Gandhi had warned humanity as early as the
first decade of the 20th century.
The Green perspectives on development has radicalised
politics by creating an awareness of ecological risks and
forcing a genuine search for global solutions. Groups
inspired by Gandhi are now seeking to widen the relevance
of Mahatma's teachings to encompass issues of peace,
human rights, economic equality and democracy. They are
convinced that it was the Gandhian critique of industrial
economics, which earned the Greens a global constituency.
It is a search to communicate and revive a sense of
community among peoples.
The growing appeal of this search attests to Gandhism
being seen as a wider societal prescription as a
political approach that could overcome not only military
and ethnic conflicts but also address the violence of the
confrontation between state and civil society, the
economic imbalances created by " development" and the
resultant social tensions rooted in cultural
antagonisms.
The rationale is that nonviolent resistance has
brought deeper changes from the build-up to the overthrow
of the Shah of Iran and Macros in the Philippines to the
Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the uprising in
East Germany. A Hungarian speaking minority in Slovakia,
deprived of education in their language and resorting to
'Civil-disobedience' is cited as an example of ongoing
Gandhian struggles.
The market and its instruments such as the EEC, are
ill-equipped to deal with aspirations for peace,
democracy and human rights because they have reduced
these values to economic interests. Hence, the over
riding need to socially re-locate these as values in a
new political framework, namely Gandhism.
Growing violence and dehumanising hunger
What would Gandhi have done in the face of widespread
violence, hunger, inequality are questions often asked.
Communication is critical and yet it seems to be missing
despite the technology at hand. This shifts the focus
back to Gandhi. As a communicator he would gave gone to
the people, is one answer. He effortlessly united people
across barriers of literacy, language, ethnic identity,
class, caste and privilege. Somewhere in this answer
could be clues to transgress the social divisions that
are threatening the whole world or at least this is the
hope inspired by Gandhism.
Such enquiries, however hesitant, bear testimony to
the vigour and insight that informs the quest for a new
vision being shaped by the mahatma.
Today, Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy is looked as a live
experience with potential for transformation leading to a
Global Awakening.
From the general attitude towards Gandhi as the chief
architect of India's nonviolent freedom movement and as
someone who interprets nonviolence as a new idiom the
international community has been showing signs of
analysing Gandhian options very seriously, as the
previous century came to close and many of the overriding
political and philosophical positions were either proved
to be defective or died their natural death. From Martin
Luther King Jr. to Aung San Suu Kyi, the list of freedom
fighters, nationalists, Human Right activists,
environmentalists, feminists and the whole with honour
and dignity have shown a remarkable understanding of the
growing relevance of means Gandhi adopted and the vision
and legacy bequeathed to humanity.
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam
It is widely acknowledged now that Gandhi, who through
his innovative approaches and daring initiatives,
succeeded in initiating a new era in human history, an
era which signifies man's immense potentiality to rise
above narrow considerations and to strive for ushering in
a new level of achievement. The new methods, strategies
and ideas Gandhi successfully demonstrated influenced not
only the freedom fighters and social reformers of most of
the continents but also those who are involved in the
serious search for alternatives in their efforts to
sustain all what is dear to humanity. The Gandhian vision
of holistic development and respect for all forms of life
&endash; nonviolent conflict resolution embedded in the
acceptance of non-violence both as a creed and strategy
&endash; were an extension of the ancient Indian concept
of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. The much talked about concept
of global human family and humanity's effort to dismantle
manmade barriers among nations peoples and the Indian
ideals of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam as enshrined in the Vedic
and Upanishad wisdom, are almost the same. It is true
that Gandhi always began at the micro level, but then,
his vision surpassed the exigencies of local or national
barriers. Gandhi said, "It is impossible for one to be
internationalist without being a nationalist… I do
want to think in terms of the whole world. My patriotism
includes the good of mankind in general. Therefore, my
service of India includes the service of humanity".
The Gandhian vision of society does not recognise
man-made barriers but at the same time as Gandhi often
insisted while we should welcome all that is best in
other traditions when we allow the winds of other
cultures to blow in, we should refuse to be swept off our
feet. This indicates that one cannot be internationalist
without being a nationalist. Gandhi once said,
"My mission is not merely the brotherhood of Indian
humanity. My mission is not merely freedom of India,
though today it undoubtedly engrosses practically the
whole of my life and the whole of my time. The true
realization of freedom of India, I hope, would realise
and carry on the mission of the brotherhood of man. My
patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all embracing
and I should reject patriotism which sought to mount upon
the distress or the exploitation of other nationalities.
I want to realise brotherhood or identity not merely with
the being called human, but I want to realise identity
with all life, even with such thing as that crawl on
earth".
It is this vision of the Mahatma and the ceaseless
strivings he undertook through the numerous experiments
he conducted which endeared him to millions of his
countrymen and others who joyfully threw themselves into
the vortex of one of the glorious movements in human
history. The nonviolent national struggle for freedom
waged under Mahatma Gandhi had the able support of a
galaxy of such illustrious men and women of the century
like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Rajagopalachari,
Pt.Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Sardar Patel, Sarojini
Naidu, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and several thousand
others.
Gandhi knew no fear and he released his country from
fear and inducted into his countrymen fearlessness and
offered them brave initiatives for social transformation
which saw India taking courageous steps in the
dismantling of some of the age-old customs and practices
such as untouchability. The manner in which a vast
majority of Indians, who were segregated in the name of
this dehumanising practice and how they came up in life
in the post-independence era, speaks volumes of the
impact Gandhi created on the Indian psyche to initiate
steps to ensure social justice.
"At present, now that the Cold War has ended, much of
the planet enjoys freedom. But another kind of
totalitarianism still prevails, the totalitarianism of
those who want the entire world to conform to the formula
of Western Style democracy and unrestrained market
economics", observed Johan Galtung in Choose Peace. This
statement provokes Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, President of the
fast-emerging powerful Soka Gakkai to assert that the
collapse of the Soviet Union which is hailed in the West
as the victory of capitalism and democracy does not
indicate the end of history. It may be remembered that as
products of the so-called Modern Age both socialism and
capitalism have the same root. What the French poet Paul
Valery said in this context also deserves attention. He
said that the European civilisation represents a culture
of expansionism demanding the maximum in authority,
capital, and production of efficiency and external
alterations of nature. Hence it is to be borne in mind
that since both capitalism and socialism are rooted in
the soil of this civilisation, the downfall of one or the
other cannot possibly signify the end of history. "Our
task now is to examine the merits and demerits of our
history frankly and to correct whatever has gone wrong.
The post Cold War World demands that we revise the
orientation of expansionism, that has crippling or in
some other way deleterious effects. We must take
civilisation beyond the 'modern' into new stage. This can
be done only by those who consider themselves as citizens
of the world as did always by great people who always
transcend national boundaries and ethnic differences to
arouse sympathy in the hearts of people all over the
globe. A citizen of the world is unrestrained by
nation-state structure and racial discrimination. No
doubt the transformation of a proud citizen of a country
into a world citizen is not an easy task, but this is
essential in order to promote peace and understanding at
global level. Violence, hatred and selfishness have to
give way to a nonviolent global order".
Gandhi's tackling of direct violence
The observations made earlier by Dr. Ikeda in his now
famous Gandhi Memorial-Lecture in New Delhi in 1992 have
been considered very significant in our efforts to
understand the course of events in the 21st century. In
his views, the Gandhian heritage forms an important part
of humanity's efforts to live in peace. The four
important elements related to Gandhi mentioned in the
speech are optimism, activism, population and holistic
vision. The optimism associated with Gandhi "is not
relativism determined by objective analysis of
circumstances. Instead it is an unconditional,
indestructible faith in humanity, a fit born of justice,
nonviolence and penetrating self-observation". Agreeing
fully with this observation of Ikeda, Galtung points
out"…. optimism was a basic condition for the
astonishing major struggles that Gandhi carried out in
only one life time: the battle for home rule (Swaraj):
his work to elevate the people in general and
particularly the self-reliant, small, coherent
communities that he called 'Oceanic circles' (Sarvodaya)
his battle to improve the condition of the casteless (to
whom Gandhi gave the name harijan or children of God) his
work to raise the status of women; his efforts in the
name of equality on behalf of Indians in South Africa;
his not very successful strivings for peace between
Indian Hindus and Muslims; and the most important of all,
his devoted support for and development of nonviolence
(Satyagraha) as the only valid approach to the attainment
of all his other goals". And he successfully attained all
those goals inviting Albert Einstein to describe Gandhi
as the greatest political genius of our times precisely
because of his ability to maintain a subtle balance
between the ideal and the practical. This ability found
concrete, embodiment in the nonviolent resistance
movement. Dr.Ikeda has also raised a very important
question about the effectiveness of nonviolence in
combating what is called structural violence in the Third
World. Can nonviolence work in an imperial structure
dominated by centre-periphery relations in which the
centre is strong and the periphery weak?
Galtung is convinced that Gandhi answered direct
violence with nonviolence defence. He answered structural
violence with nonviolent revolution. These methods worked
in the Soviet Tsarist-Bolshevik structure, one of the
most brutal of all worlds' empires. The basic formula for
the effectiveness of these techniques is two-fold; to
strengthen the periphery (that is, the weak) and to
weaken the centre (the strong). Gandhi predicted
accurately the downfall of political structures based on
power and violence such as those of the former Soviet
Union and its satellite nations in East Europe. The
comments of Gandhi during his visit to Romain Rolland
that (Gandhi) had a deep mistrust of the ultimate success
of the experiment being carried out there may be
remembered in this context. It seems that it is a
challenge to non-violence; assume significance, as it is
widely understood now. For Gandhi, ends and means always
had to be consistent and subject to the same ethical
principle; violence can only breed violence. Similarly,
as can be seen in good relations between the British and
the Indians today, nonviolence breeds nonviolence. The
structures Gandhi laid at Russia's doors are applicable
in the West too, points out Galtung: "The French
Revolution, which is usually celebrated as a great
liberation, was actually excessively cruel and
bloody…. The United States was born in blood.
Genocide was conducted against may be 10 million
indigenous Americans in the period 1500-1900 who were
later confined to reservations, a very vicious form of
structural violence. Many Native Americans remain on
reservation today with no hope of an end to their misery
in sight. The struggle for independence between 1776 and
1812 was mostly violent, as was the cruel and bloody
Civil War of 1861-65, the main goal of which was the
preservation of the Union; abolition of slavery was only
a secondary issue".
As Gandhi proved through his successful campaigns in
South Africa and India the goals of these revolutionary
struggles could have been attained nonviolently without
encouraging and strengthening the strains of violence
inherent in the people waging them, "What the Soviets had
done was no more than a parody, a caricature, a kind of
revolution Gandhi initiated &endash; of course, the
Soviet system failed. History is sometimes harsh, but
just judge", agrees Galtung.
Religion and social change
Galtung also makes a very useful analysis of Gandhi's
basic approach to religion and societal change. "Being
himself a reformer, Gandhi did not have any difficulty in
absorbing the basic teachings of the Buddha whose
revolutionary teachings are the core of Buddhism which is
a reform movement within the great Hindu tradition. The
word 'Hinduism' itself is a most inadequate term for a
vast conglomerate of profound philosophies. I see
Gandhi's Buddhist inclinations in three directions within
this conglomerate", Galtung points out:
First is his instance on Ahimsa (nonviolence) not as a
mere ideal but as a practice applied to all forms of life
including animals. The importance of vegetarianism, which
Gandhi adhered to and propagated with passionate
conviction, cannot be lost sight of in developing a
nonviolent attitude towards life.
The second is his outright rejection of the vertical
caste-system. Shakyamuni's fierce fight against the
dehumanising aspect of social segregation in the name of
caste enabled the Indian society, to begin with, to
exorcise this centuries-old inhuman practice. Following
in the footsteps of the Buddha, Gandhi strongly opposed
the verticality of the caste order. He envisioned a
horizontal caste system in which all occupations are
treated equally in a symbiotic union of diverse elements.
Each profession should have dignity; and to the maximum
extent possible, the dignity of all should be equal.
Third, in conformity with the Buddhist idea of the
Sangha or small community of believers, Gandhi
experimented with the developments of small autonomous
communities, respecting everyone's needs but not for
everybody's greed. Both misery at the bottom and
excessive wealth at the top would be eliminated in his
communities. It is a big question as to how deep the
Gandhian vision made a dent in the otherwise stratified
Indian society. These three and other departures from
mainstream belief cost Gandhi his life at the hands of an
assassin who is described sometimes as a fanatic and
orthodox Hindu. Whoever he was, it appears he was someone
who did not agree with Gandhi's opposition to verticality
of caste system. Dr. Ikeda takes these points further up
and believes that perhaps Buddhism and Hinduism refined
Gandhi's rare personal traits. "Gandhi was a gradualist,
not a radical. He thought good changes take time &endash;
they move at a snail's pace. This too is part of his
sense of practicality and order, in which I see a
reflection of Buddhist idea of the middle way….
Buddhist wisdom has clearly and accurately perceived the
middle way between existence and non-existence; between
pain and pleasure; and between the doctrine of eternity,
according to which conditioned elements themselves are
external and the doctrine of annihilation. His practical
approach leads me to believe that Gandhi too perceived
this middle way.
Gandhi's views on machinery and large industries
invited criticism from many quarters. He is branded
anti-progressive on this score. Galtung makes a very
interesting observation in this regard. To Gandhi, big
cities and big industries were instruments of British
imperialism for which Gandhi had no love. 'Is it not
possible, however, to humanize citizens and industry?
Citizens can become confederations of relatively
autonomous neighbourhoods. Industries can reform in a
similar fashion: technologies that degrade neither human
users nor the natural environment can be evolved. Large
factories and office buildings may give way to more work
at home. Gandhi proposed nonviolence as an alternative to
the choice between violence and capitalism. Citizens and
industries remodelled as I suggest would provide similar
alternatives to the choice between industry and cottage
industry and agriculture. "Gandhi certainly perceived the
middle way but he did not develop it with regard to
villages verses cities. It is the responsibility of the
millions of people who were inspired by Gandhi to work
out the middle way on the basis of his work and the
message he left for posterity", concludes Galtung.
It is generally believed that Gandhi opened a new era
by convincingly demonstrating that there is an
alternative to the politics of confrontation, violence,
manipulation and to the disregard of human
sentiments--love and compassion in action.
He also showed that in the non-violent form of protest
and fight he was leading there was no room for hate,
violence and one should able to stand up courageously and
fight without hating those against the fight is directed.
He said again and again that his fight was only against
the British system which allows imperialism and
exploitation and not against the British. The way India
and Britain parted company in 1947 speaks volumes of
Gandhi's influence on both the rulers in Britain and the
Indian nationalists fighting for freedom. It was the
first-ever happy parting of ways in recent times between
the masters of a colony and-the nationalists who were
fighting for freedom. Gandhi was the unquestioned leader
of the Indian masses who but for Gandhi would have
resorted to the extreme form of violence in realizing the
goal of freedom. There is no parallel in human history of
several hundred millions of freedom-loving people
marching towards their cherished goal without shedding
blood. It was the triumph of human will over forces of
oppression and injustice. It was an indication that human
revolution is possible through dynamic leadership and
that a true revolution need not be violent.
Gandhi in the cyber age and in the context of
Globalisation
What is the relevance of Gandhi in this all pervading
materialistic, agnostic and consumerist culture? It is
precisely these three tendencies Gandhi fought in all his
life. It is a fact of history that repudiation of one
philosophy at a given time does not mean the death or
irrelevance of it. The men and women who moved the world
were mostly either crucified, burnt alive, or were
branded heretic, or excommunicated. Still independent
inquiry and pursuit of truth and to express themselves
against injustice were continued in all ages, probably
with added vigour. The irreversible fact of history,
again, is that the list of such 'rebels' steadily grow
despite all attempts to ward off the perceived
threat.
Despite all the impressive gains mankind has achieved
in the present century through intelligent harnessing of
science and technology which brought in unexpected and
unimaginable results in various fields, the world today
is on the throes of several global crises. Conflicts and
tension of all sorts are increasing, sending shock waves
all around. With the disappearance of the Soviet Union as
the leader of block-of nations, the world has become
unipolar. If anybody believed that the cold war, years
have ended and humanity could live in peace henceforth,
his hopes have been completely belied as could be seen
from the various disturbing fighting and raging violence
and senseless killings in various parts of the world.
Notwithstanding all high sounding assurances on arms
reductions and cuts in military expenditure, we see an
alarming escalation in the production of lethal weapons.
It is estimated that there is an annual-world wide
consumption of 1000 billion dollars on arms alone. Even
one-sixth of this huge amount is sufficient enough to
remove world hunger in the next six years.
Where have we gone wrong? Have we lost all our concern
for our less fortunate brethren? Almost all the planning
models we have experimented have strong elitist bias and
connotation of moneymaking and influence building seem to
be the base of all the models we have been experimenting
within recent times. This has led to serious consequences
in many areas.
The tendency of urbanisation is as old as human
civilisation and it is a natural consequence of a
changing society. In fact this process was considered a
welcome development on grounds of economies of scale
reduction of disturbances, and efficient sharing of
resources generated through the adoption of urbanisation.
With industrialisation, a new element was introduced and
people who own means of production gradually usurped the
fruits of industrialisation and a new class of people
emerged. Impoverisation and marginalisation have
increased. Instead of offering vast opportunities to the
worker what happened was the growing awareness that jobs
are becoming fewer and scarce. A vast majority was denied
access to jobs and land the gulf between the organised
labours also increased. More distressing than any of
these is the untold miseries industrialisation has
brought in which led to the sprouting up of slums
&endash; those veritable hells where humanity is crushed
beyond any sign of redemption.
Introduction of high technology has inevitably made
agriculture, the oldest human profession, into an
industrial activity. This rendered many farm hands
surplus. Where do the labour forces go? Inevitably, to
the urban centres. Bombay is the best example. Out of the
total population of the 10.5 million in 2000, six million
are leading a subhuman kind of living in these veritable
infernos called slums.
Development without justice and compassion?
Energy which is so essential to all industrial
processes is increasingly found to be one of the most
important variables measuring economic activities. Solar
energy in its varied forms, wind-generated electricity,
bio-gas, solar collectors, photo-voltaic cells, etc. will
inevitably lead to the emergence of a Solar Age beyond
its technological meaning. Henderson visualises with the
shift in emphasis on the Petroleum Age and the
industrial-era, the emergence of a new culture. This
culture includes the ecology movements, the women's
movement and the peace movement.
An examination of the views and practices of Gandhi
and J.C.Kumarappa and the theories of Schumacher,
Henderson and Capra, in the light of what is described
today as Sustainable Development, a term so vogue, and
heard from almost everybody who has anything to do with
preservation of life of earth, would reveal the amazing
fact that in Gandhian thought and action, humanity has
sufficient tools it needs for sustainable development. As
early as 1909, through his little book 'Hind Swaraj',
Gandhi drew humanity's attention to what might happen to
the globe if proper check is not imposed in the various
strategies and alternatives we examine. Gandhi said, "I
must confess that I do not draw a sharp line or any
distinction between economics and ethics. Economics that
hurts the moral well-being of an individual or a nation
is immoral and, therefore, sinful". This indicates that
sustainable development requires both biological and
cultural diversity which in turn is inescapably linked to
justice and compassion, toward each other and to the
nature.
"We notice that the mind is a restless bird. The more
it gets, the more it wants, and still remains
unsatisfied. The more we indulge in our passions, the
more unbridled they become. Our ancestors, therefore, set
a limit to our indulgence. They saw that happiness was
largely a mental condition. A man is not necessarily
happy because he is rich, or unhappy because he is poor."
Gandhi had written in his little classic Hind Swaraj that
was published when the twentieth century was just being
ushered in.
We are fostering a system which has inbuilt
iniquities, power, wealth, knowledge and we have a
culture/civilization bereft of any trace of compassion.
It has all the trappings of Casino Capitalism which has
infinite power to entice humanity through its charm.
We go on blaming science and technology but how many
of us care to realise that technology by itself has no
will. It is the social will which determines. The
aeroplane which carry passengers can carry bombs.
Gandhi emphasised credible alternatives which the
proponents of the present day corporate values
assiduously seek to strengthen. Let us look at some of
the principles Gandhi believed are of paramount
importance.
1) Against the multiplication of wants, Gandhi
suggested limitation of wants.
2) Instead of diffusion of large scale technology,
Gandhi was in favour of large scale technology in few
sectors co-existing with small scale technology and
handicrafts in others.
3) Against mass production, Gandhi favoured production
by the masses and small scale production except in a few
sectors where mass production is unavoidable.
4) Gandhi was not in favour of centralisation of
economic power. He favoured limited state ownership,
wide-spread village ownership and trusteeship.
5) Rapid urbanisation did not find favour with Gandhi.
He advocated self-governing village republics,
self-sufficient in basic needs.
6) Inequality of all types particularly in wages,
social justice and in gender reflects where there is
denial of natural justice according to Gandhi.
7) As against increasing specialisation, Gandhi
favoured universal physical labour.
By no stretch of imagination can anyone say that these
are moral prescriptions by an orthodox social reformer.
On the contrary, they reflect the profound understanding
of a revolutionary thinker, philosopher activist, whose
vision in life was steeped in pragmatism, love,
compassion and change with consent.
Economic well-being appears to be the sole of purpose
of life and the manner in which value systems are being
trampled upon raises the big question: where are we
heading to?
The usherers, drum-beaters and self-styled
(self-appointed) custodians of emerging trends, perhaps,
are impervious to the following paradoxes:
n While absolute poverty has decreased globally,
relative poverty has increased.
n More people have become literate. But access to
information and technology have become concentrated and
centralised.
n More countries have become democratised but there is
greater concentration of power.
n Communication explosion but growing alienation,
family break up, lack of communication at individual
level has become rampant.
By 'growth', what is meant today is economic growth
and man has all of a sudden been reduced to the level of
commodity whose worth is determined by factors other than
what distinguishes them from the beast.
Moral values, ethics, spirituality, family values,
religious insights have all seemed to have lost their
place and values in the emerging global scenario. Ethics
and morality appear to be out of tune with the ethos of
the global village. Globalisation has thrust to the
forefront. The death of religion and the deterioration of
the nation-state, leading to global integration mostly on
the strength of economic prosperity of the industrially
rich and developed nations which by and large are in the
driver's seat today, have led to a situation where vast
iniquities that divided the small minority of haves from
the huge majority of have-nots. Very few, unfortunately,
appear to be conscious of the dangers of blind
globalisation in their anxiety to take advantage of its
so-called benefits. The economic liberalisation and
technological automation threaten to widen even further
existing economic, social, political and cultural
disparity.
Global justice will be a far cry unless bold
initiatives are undertaken to overcome these disparities.
The declining in-importance of nation-state in favour of
global village concept has confounded the situation
further since the present uni-polar politics and hegemony
of the superior currencies not only dictate terms to the
poor cousins who are by and large at the receiving
end.
A student, a couple of weeks who, when asked at an
interview for his views on relevance of Gandhi in the
twenty-first century had the courage to look at the
examiner and politely tell him: "Sir, I wish you had
asked me to tell you why Gandhi is more relevant
today."
I hope we will have the wisdom of this teenager in
understanding the challenges facing us today.
©
TFF & the author 2003
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