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Gandhism (or Gandhi-ism) is an informal reference to the core inspiration and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. It is a body of ideas and principles that best describe not only the inspiration, vision and the life work of Mohandas K. Gandhi, but what Gandhi's ideas, words and actions meant to common Indians and human beings around the world, and how they used them for guidance as they built their own future. Gandhism also permeates into the realm of the individual human being, non-political and non-social.
Under the heading of Gandhism, this article endeavors to discuss the effect of the work and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, how it has influenced nations and peoples, and how the understanding of what it is has gone beyond Gandhi, for good and ill.
Satya: Definition and Direction of Gandhism
Gandhi himself famously stated that "I have nothing new to teach the World. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills." Certainly no element of Gandhism is entirely Gandhi's original thinking.
Gandhi developed his vision, thought and way of life by his constant experimenting with truth, by making painful errors during his childhood and adolescence, but by having the strength to repent and correct. All 78 years of Gandhi's life, from his childhood and adolescent errors and indulgences, his penances for them, to his adulthood convictions and sacrifices, compose the defining elements of Gandhism.
The goals of different philosophies vary: socialism desires an egalitarian economic and political system; pacifism shall tolerate no war under any circumstances; Buddhism seeks salvation.
The pivotal and defining element of Gandhism is Satya, simply, Truth. Truth to Gandhi, and so to his followers must pervade all considerations of politics, ego, society and convention. Gandhi was neither a pacifist, socialist or on any definable spectrum of politics. He simply adhered to the pure existing facts of life, otherwise known as the true state of things, to make his decisions.
The Truth however is the most difficult value to imbibe and practice for most human beings, and Gandhi's life is evidence and inspiration that it can be done. Gandhi's commitment to non-violence, human freedom, equality and justice arose from the truths of life, after careful personal examination.
Truth is interpreted subjectively. Thus Gandhism as a body does not demand that its adherents agree to Gandhi's own principles to the letter, but essentially in spirit. If one honestly believes that violence is sometimes unavoidable, necessary and cleansing of an immoral situation, it would only be being truthful to believe in it. Being truthful is the spirit of Gandhism. He found that uncovering the truth was not always popular as many people were resistant to change, preferring instead to maintain the existing status quo because of either inertia, self-interest or misguided beliefs. However he also discovered that once the truth was on the march nothing could stop it. All it took was time to achieve traction and gain momentum. As Gandhi said: The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction
It should be noted that even the Indian Independence Movement was not exempt from Gandhi's commitment to Truth. When Gandhi returned to India amidst World War I, he said he would have supported the British in the war. It would have been wrong, according to Gandhi, to demand equal rights for Indians in the Empire, and not contribute to its defence.
Gandhi stopped all nationwide civil resistance in 1922 upon the ugly Chauri Chaura incident. He would forsake political independence for truth - the reality here that Indians should not become murderers and commit the very evils they were accusing the British of perpetrating in India.
He said that the most important battle to fight was in overcoming his own demons, fears and insecurities. He thought it was all too easy to blame people, governing powers or enemies for his personal actions and wellbeing. He noted the solution to problems could normally be found just by looking in the mirror.
One of the greatest contributions of Mahatma Gandhi was in the realm of ontology and its association with truth. For Gandhi, "to be" did not mean to exist within the realm of time, as it has in the past with the Greek philosophers. But rather, "to exist" meant to exist within the realm of truth, or to use the term Gandhi did, satya. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth," but as typical of Gandhi, he evolved, later to correct himself and state that "Truth is God." The first statement seemed insufficient to Gandhi, as the mistake could be made that Gandhi was using Truth as a description of God, as opposed to God as an aspect of satya. Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is God. It shares all the characteristics of the Hindu concept of God, or Brahman. It lives within us, that little voice that tells us what to do, but also guides the universe.
His Greatest Gifts
Since 1918, Gandhism became a uniting force for millions of Indians, a defining element of Indian Nationalism and a basic description of what unites the diverse demographics and cultures of India.
India's independence was not won by Gandhi alone, but by the work and sacrifice of 100 million Indians over three to four generations. Gandhi himself stated that "truth and non-violence are as old as the hills" and that he had taught nothing new to the world. Mahatma Gandhi's biggest contributions to India and the world were:
The Universal Weapon
Gandhi was a simple, frail and timid-looking man. He had not been a distinguished student or great professional. Yet he led a rebellion of 300 million people from the front and tore down the British Empire. Gandhi gave the universal weapon of Satyagraha to ordinary human beings to fight injustice, tyranny and oppression. It did not require men becoming armed militants and leading the lives of the hunted. It instead gave voice and strength to the poorest farmers, the most downtrodden of a huge society, the youngest of men and women and the most timid housewife. Gandhi helped a silent nation that had suffered through 1,000 years of tyranny, oppression and invasion, to stand up for themselves, their beliefs and way of life, and tear down a world-wide empire.
The Making of a Nation
Before Gandhi, the Congress Party itself had been segregated by caste and ethnicity. Language differences and religious antagonism made it a body of talk, not action or results. It claimed to represent a country united only in poverty and ignorance. Elitist lawyers from Delhi and Mumbai made up its office-bearers, speakers and leaders.
In reality, India had not been united since Emperor Ashoka over 1,500 years ago. It had seen over 1,000 years of oppression, tyranny and invasion, new rulers coming and going. None had touched or changed the lives of the people.
The Rebellion of 1857 touched something deep in many common Indians, but failed to do anything more. It was Gandhi who created the first-ever nationwide organization truly representative of the common Indians. It contained men and women of all religions, 18 different language groups and from the poorest villages of the farthest corners of the Indian subcontinent. And all these Indians, numbering in the tens of millions, were united in a nationwide struggle for something called freedom and democracy.
In his famous attire of loincloth and shawl, Gandhi instantly struck a chord with the hundreds of millions of people who thought he was one of them. He talked in the native language, inspiring the comman man to feel he belonged to something called a nation.
Gandhi made this Indian National Congress fight for the causes of common man: he led the fights against poverty, alcoholism, illiteracy, disease while simultaneously fighting the British. He knew there could be no freedom when a system of slavery remained a part of Hindu society, called untouchability. He gave voice to Muslim and Hindu women, and brought Muslims and Hindus together for the first time in history in a peaceful and righteous common cause. And above all, he made them work together for something common, and develop a common sense of identity and brotherhood.
Gandhi's all-cultures, egalitarian, democratic organization laid the foundation for a nation that would genuinely be free, and where all religions, ethnic and linguistic groups would have genuine respect, love and brotherhood for one another.
It may be too much to say he made a nation, for India is as timeless and boundless as the whole world itself. But he did something, without which there would be no one country but 500, and no real freedom for the so-called common Indian. All 350 million of them.
In Nehru's India
Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 , but his teachings and philosophy would play a major role in India's economic and social development and foreign relations for decades to come.
The Bhoodan movement was initiated by Gandhians like Vinoba Bhave. While the problem of the desperate poverty of tens of millions of landless farmers across the country had to be addressed, Gandhi did not believe that class warfare was inevitable, as Lenin, Mao Zedong and Stalin did. Bhave and other Gandhi disciples organized a campaign encouraging landlords across the country to award land to their farmers. They were encouraged to acknowledge the desperate poverty and mistreatment of these farmers, to accept them as fellow Indians and their brethren. This peaceful land distribution program was frowned upon by supporters of free-market economics, the Communists and socialists alike, but did enjoy notable successes.
The Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru was the protege of Gandhi. Nehru was often considered Gandhi's successor as India's political leader, and used this position to push major ideological policies based on Gandhi's principles.
Nehru's foreign policy was staunch anti-colonialism and neutrality in the Cold War. Nehru backed the independence movement in Tanzania and other African nations, as well as the American Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. and the anti-apartheid struggle of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress in South Africa. Nehru refused to align with either the United States or the Soviet Union, and helped found the Non Aligned Movement.
Nehru also pushed through major legislation that granted legal rights and freedoms to Indian women, and outlawed untouchability and many different kinds of social discrimination, much to the opposition of the Indian orthodoxy.
Nehru however, is criticized for hypocrisy for some of his decisions which clearly deviated from the purity of Gandhi's teachings. Nehru refused to condemn the USSR's 1956-57 invasion of Hungary to put down an anti-communist, popular revolt. Some of his economic policies took away the right of property and freedoms from the very landowing peasants of Gujarat for whom Gandhi had fought for in the early 1920s. While Gandhi was never a socialist, Nehru was an avowed fan of the creed.
Where many consider Nehru's biggest failing, the 1962 Sino-Indian War, Gandhi is also criticized for inspiring the pacifism that led to the defeat of the Indian Army against a surprise Chinese invasion. Nehru had neglected the defence budget and disallowed the Army to prepare, which caught the soldiers in India's north eastern frontier woefully off-guard with lack of supplies and reinforcements.
Inspiring Struggle for Freedom
Gandhi's deep commitment and disciplined belief in non-violent civil disobedience as a way to oppose tyranny, oppression and injustice was shared by many contemporary leaders of nations, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko of South Africa, Lech Wałęsa of Poland and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
Gandhi's early life work in South Africa between the years 1910 and 1915, for the rights of colored peoples oppressed by the racist, white-dominated South African regime inspired the later work of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress. Since the 1950s, the ANC organized non-violent civil disobedience akin to the Indian National Congress of Gandhi during the Indian Independence Movement. Determined ANC activists braved the sticks and bullets of the police, water-hoses, tear gas and mad dogs to break the back of tyranny, racism and oppression in South Africa, all without retaliating despite the brutality. Many, especially Mandela, languished for decades in jail, while the world outside was divided in its effort to remove apartheid from South Africa. When Mandela and the ANC finally won, and when the first universal, free elections were held in South Africa and Mandela became President, he made a special visit to India and publicly honored Gandhi as the man who inspired the freedom struggle of black South Africans. Statues of Gandhi have been erected in Natal, Pretoria and Johannesburg and South Africans do not hesitate to honor his importance to their revolution.
Dr. Martin Luther King, leader of the American Civil Rights Movement seeking the liberation of African Americans from racial segregation in the American South, and also the terrible economic and social injustice and political disenfranchisement, traveled to India in 1962 and Nehru met him personally. The two discussed Gandhi's teachings, and the methodology of organizing peaceful resistance. The terribly graphic imagery of determined Black protestors being hounded by police, beaten and brutalized, evoked universal admiration for Dr. King and the protestors across America and the world, and precipitated in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In an unholy coincidence, Dr. King was assassinated by a white fanatic in 1968, even as Gandhi was killed in 1948 by a Hindu extremist.
The non-violent Solidarity movement of Lech Wałęsa of Poland overthrew a Soviet-backed communist government after two decades of peaceful resistance and strikes, in 1989, beginning the downfall of the Soviet Communist empire. Peaceful resistance had been offered by many over 50 years in Soviet-occupied countries, but the Communist empire was finally broken not merely by U.S. economic and military power, but also an deep desire for freedom shared by the peoples of Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
To this day Gandhi evokes fiery passion for freedom. Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, a small young woman, remains under house arrest, and her National League for Democracy suppressed in their non-violent quest for democracy and freedom in military-controlled Myanmar. This struggle was inaugurated when the military dismissed the results of the 1991 democratic elections and imposed harsh military rule. It is said that more than 5 million Burmese men, women and children are being used as slave labor. And it should be noted that despite provoking outrage around the world, India, Gandhi's own nation, has worked for normal relations and cooperation with the regime, instead of actively supporting Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD.
For World Peace
Gandhi is often quoted for his total belief in non-violence, even when faced by militarist tyrants like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Gandhi believed that non-violent civil resistance could overcome the brutal armies of Nazi Germany, if the people adopted this method whole-heartedly.
Gandhi was often quoted by Americans opposed to the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. Pacifists who have opposed even wars to liberate countries and defeat dictators cite the beliefs of Gandhi in Pacifism.
Gandhi is one of the heroes of American liberalism and pacifism in Europe, including the pacifists and leftists who opposed the Trident missile deployment by NATO countries in the 1980s. While NATO and the United States argued that Trident as necessary as a preventive deterrent, pacifists were convinced that the trident would only make nuclear conflict inevitable.
The Gandhism of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Gandhism draws heavily from world religions. Hinduism (especially Vaishnavism), Jainism and Buddhism, religions of India played a major role in Gandhi's education and daily life, and so did the teachings of saints like Kabir, Swami Vivekananda, Sai Baba and the Buddha.
Gandhi was also deeply influenced by teachings of Christian anarchism and Islam. But despite an almost universal religious grounding, Gandhi did not hesitate to criticize these very systems and their adherents for allowing disharmony, violence and discrimination pollute their purity.
"I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills" - Mahatma Gandhi.
The works of political thinkers and literary figures like Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy shape and influence political Gandhism.
Nonviolence
The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted with saying:
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?" "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". "There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for". In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes. In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by the armed forces of Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people:
"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them". (Non-Violence in Peace and War)
Brahmacharya and Ahimsa
At the age of 36, Gandhi adopted the vow of brahmacharya. He thus committed himself to the control of the senses, thoughts and actions.
Ahimsa rose highly in his mind. Total non-violence rid the person of anger, obsession and destructive impulses. While his vegetarianism was inspired by his rearing in the Hindu-Jain culture of Gujarat, it was just an extention of ahimsa, total non-violence.
Celibacy was important to Gandhi for not only purifying himself of any lust and sexual urges, but also to purify his love for his wife as genuine and not an outlet for any turmoil or aggression within his mind. Celebacy was an extension of ahimsa to him, and the center of his observance of brahmacharya.
Gandhi also adopted the clothing style of most Indians in the early 20th century. His adoption of khadi was to help eradicate the evils of poverty, social and economic discrimination and egotism that exists between most Indians, who were poor and traditional, to the richer classes of the British and educated, liberal-minded Indians who had adopted Western mannerisms, clothing and practices.
The clothing policy was designed to protest the violence of British-imposed economic policies in India, where millions of poor Indian workers were left unemployed and entrenched in poverty, owing to the advent of the machines in Great Britain. If an Indian chose to buy and wear clothes manufacturing in Britain, as many liberal Indians did, scores of Indian workers lost their livelihood.
Gandhi sought to end the destructive impulses and behavior that may poison his marriage and relationships with other human beings, and his personal contribution to society. It was a personal quest which spawned the largest non-violent revolution in human history.
Religion
Gandhi questioned religious practices and doctrines regardless of traditions or beliefs. On the subject of Christianity he noted that:
"The only people on earth who do not see Christ and His teachings as nonviolent are Christians". Although Gandhi was born a Hindu he was critical of most religions, including Hinduism. He wrote in his autobiography:
"Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty".
He then went on to say:
"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side". Gandhi was critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the principles on which they were based. He also said the following about Hinduism:
"Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita". The concept of Islamic jihad can also be taken to mean a nonviolent struggle or satyagraha, in the way Gandhi practiced it. On Islam he said:
"The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind". Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:
"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew".
Badshah Khan was a stalwart Muslim and Pathan. And while Pathans today have the image of being ruthless and violent, Khan developed an organization, the Khudai Khidmatgars more committed to non-violent civil resistance than the Indian National Congress led by Gandhi himself. Khan's supporters took bullets, but looked soldiers straight in the eye without anger, frustration or fear.
Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was Truth (Satya), Love/Nonviolence (Ahimsa) and the Golden Rule. He was deeply influenced by the Christian teaching of nonresistance and "turning the other cheek", once stating that if Christianity practised the Sermon on the Mount, he would indeed be a Christian. Gandhi felt that one should be aware of worshiping the symbols and idols of the religion and not its teachings, such as worshipping the crucifix whilst ignoring its significance as a symbol for self-sacrifice, for example.
Criticism, Controversy and the Cult
In post-Gandhi India, adhering to Gandhi's views and teachings became a necessary correctness, thanks primarily to Congress politicians who sought to exploit his independence-era leadership for votes: that only Gandhi's party could be trusted with the nation's affairs, and that Nehru was the successor of Gandhi, anointed by Gandhi himself. The Nehru administration and the Congress party had begun the Gandhi cult.
As a result of what was taught in India's schools, Gandhi became a man who had single-handedly won India its freedom. It was an impression created with India's first post-independence generation that unwittingly undermined the contribution of tens of millions of Indian freedom fighters, and scores of distinguished Indian leaders, both within the Congress and outside it.
Wearing a white khadi kurta and dhoti, or simply khadi pants with a Gandhi cap became the uniform of the members of Parliament, politicians and political activists around India. Wearing a suit became the symbol of elitism and the Western attack on India's culture, and a taboo as far as politics and social work was concerned. For a couple of decades, it became a symbol of the barrier between most Indians, and the privileged few.
Gandhi's rigid ahimsa has been translated as pacifism, thus a source of criticism from political conservatives and nationalists. His supposed view that one should not resist even an armed invasion of one's country, and his supposed comments that the British people should have offered no resistance to Nazi Germany and that the people victimized in the holocaust should have committed mass suicide to prevent Nazis from committing the sin of killing them, and to protest the evil they were committing have been viewed as grossly extreme and impractical, and outrightly insulting to the victims of the holocaust and the peoples subjected to the attacks of Nazi forces. This pacifism was blamed as having caused the low readiness of the Indian Army to the Chinese invasion in 1962.
Many conservative Hindus blame Gandhi for being too conciliatory and appeasing to India's Muslims and the untouchable community. Gandhi is faulted for not taking a principled stand against the separatist politics of Indian Muslims in the 1940s, for compromising with the divisive, communal politics supposedly espoused by low caste and untouchable Hindus, and for acquiescing to the Partition of India, which left over 1 million people killed and sent roughly 20 million Hindus and Sikhs fleeing out of Pakistan. Gandhi was also angrily viewed when he sought a comprehensive assurance of non-violence and non-intimidation towards Indian Muslims from the Hindus of West Bengal and Delhi in the time immediately after partition and independence, but did not make the same appeals to the Muslim gangs living in Pakistan who had been killing exiting Hindu and Sikh refugees.
As a result, a lot of things associated with Gandhi, from quotes to clothing, are a source of a new generation's expression of revolt of the older. The leaders of hardline Hindus such as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Syama Prasad Mookerjee and the untouchable leader Dr. B.R. Ambedkar are hailed as heroes by many today, and noted for their distrust and oppositition to Gandhi's leadership.
Without Truth, Nothing
Mohandas Gandhi's early life was a series of personal struggles to decipher the truth about life's important issues and discover the true way of living.
As a lad, he was guilty of beating his young wife, for indulging in carnal pleasures out of lust, jealousy and possessiveness, not genuine love. He was guilty of experimenting with meat and smoking a cigarette, and harrowly escaped enjoying a prostitute. It was only after much personal turmoil and repeated failures, did Gandhi finally succeed to become who he was.
His candid confessions in his 1929 autobiography were avoidable had he chosen to conceal these unpleasant facts for fear of loss of respect and support amongst the people. But Gandhi personally disliked having a cult following, and was averse to his being addressed to as Mahatma, for he was fully aware he was not a perfect human being.
Gandhism is thus more 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 taken anybody or any ideology for granted.
Gandhi had never espoused socialism despite working all his life against the poverty and socio-economic discrimination of millions of people. It was Nehru who was a committed socialist, and as Prime Minister, responsible for post-independence India's turn to socialism.
Gandhi did believe that the world was one family, and was absolutely committed to the view that non-violent civil resistance was the solution, however unlikely to any act of oppression.
In 1942, while he had already condemned Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and the Japanese militarists, Gandhi took on an offensive in civil resistance, called the Quit India Movement, which was even more dangerous and definitive owing to its direct call for Indian independence. Gandhi was not hypocritical thus - he did not see the British as defenders of freedom giving their continuance of imperialist domination in India. Gandhi did not feel a need to take sides with world powers.
Gandhism is brutal adherence to truth. If it means condemning the practice of untouchability in Hindu society, it means condemning the victimization of Muslim women and coerced conversions to Islam and Christianity in the same breath. Gandhism has no respect for power, especially as the man himself took down the mighty British Empire. No institution or individual is infallible, save God.
And while Gandhi believed that all humans are susceptible to sinful actions and behavior, and the worst of dictators were essentially the same despite the difference in their lives, beliefs and actions, Gandhi firmly believed in humans not having the right to punish any other human beings. Punishment is God's work.
Who Can Be A Gandhian?
Despite Gandhi's adherence to Hindu cultural and religious values, Gandhism is broad over everything save the truth, which is definite and inviolable. Gandhism is the envelope around the principle of Truth. Truth by itself may be hard and too rigorous to adhere to in very complex period of life, but Gandhism makes truth inviting and redeeming.
A Muslim, a Christian, an atheist be a Gandhian without any discrepancy with his or her faith, profession or lifestyle. Gandhism transcends national boundaries, gender, racial and sexual orientation, and is as universal as humanity itself.
From personal lifestyle and character, Gandhism extends to the world of politics, human relations and religion. Gandhism yet is very difficult to define just as a religion, a political philosophy or social tradition.
References
- M.K. Gandhi: My Autobiography, Or The Story Of My Experiments With Truth (1929)
- Rajmohan Gandhi: Patel: A Life
- Gandhi, by Richard Attenborough (1982)
- Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau