Gandhism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details. |
Gandhism (or Gandhi-ism) is an informal reference to the vision, core inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement.
It is a body of ideas and principles that describes the inspiration, vision and the life work of Gandhi. The term also encompasses what Gandhi's ideas, words and actions mean to people around the world, and how they used them for guidance in building their own future. Gandhism also permeates into the realm of the individual human being, non-political and non-social.
Contents |
[edit] Satyagraha: definition and direction of Gandhism
See Also: Satyagraha
Gandhi stated that "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills."
The pivotal and defining element of Gandhism is satya, a Sanskrit word usually translated into English as truth, whose literal meaning is 'what actually is' (deriving from the root verb as meaning 'to be'). Truth must pervade all considerations of politics, ego, society and convention. Gandhi did not consider himself to be a pacifist, socialist or on any definable spectrum of politics. He professed to adhere to the pure, existing facts of life to make his decisions.
Gandhi's commitments to non-violence, human freedom, equality and justice arose from his personal examination.
Truth is interpreted subjectively. Gandhism as a body does not demand that its adherents agree to Gandhi's own principles to the letter, but in spirit. If one honestly believes that violence is sometimes necessary, it is truthful to believe in it. When Gandhi returned to India in the middle of 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. On the other hand, by the time of the advance of the Japanese in World War II, Gandhi had given up notions of fighting alongside the British. He argued for the use of civil disobedience against both the Nazis and the atomic bomb.
Gandhi developed his vision, thought and way of life by his constant "experimenting with truth" - a phrase that formed the subtitle to his autobiography. He was prepared to learn through trial and error, often admitting to mistakes and changing his behaviour accordingly. This was particularly notable when Gandhi stopped all nationwide civil resistance in 1922 after the Chauri Chaura incident. He would forsake political independence for truth - believing that Indians should not become murderers and commit the very evils they were accusing the British of perpetrating in India.
Gandhism is more about the spirit of Gandhi's journey to discover the truth, than what he finally considered to be the truth. It is the foundation of Gandhi's teachings, and the spirit of his whole life to examine and understand for oneself, and not take anybody or any ideology for granted.
Gandhi said: The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction.[citation needed]
Gandhi's philosophy encompassed 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", which his experimenting later prompted him to change to "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, and is believed by Gandhians to live within each person as their conscience while at the same time guiding the universe.
[edit] Brahmacharya and Ahimsa
See Also: Brahmacharya, Ahimsa, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy
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 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".
"It has always been easier to destroy than to create".
"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)
At the age of 36, Gandhi adopted the vow of brahmacharya, or celibacy. He committed himself to the control of the senses, thoughts and actions. 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.
Ahimsa, or non-violence, was another key tenet of Gandhi's beliefs. He held that total non-violence would rid a person of anger, obsession and destructive impulses. While his vegetarianism was inspired by his rearing in the Hindu-Jain culture of Gujarat, it was also an extension of ahimsa.
[edit] Khadi
Gandhi also adopted the clothing style of most Indians in the early 20th century. His adoption of khadi, or homespun cloth, was intended to help eradicate the evils of poverty, social and economic discrimination. It was also aimed as a challenge to the contrast that he saw between most Indians, who were poor and traditional, and the richer classes of educated, liberal-minded Indians who had adopted Western mannerisms, clothing and practices.
The clothing policy was designed to protest against the violence of British economic policies in India. Millions of poor Indian workers had been left unemployed and entrenched in poverty, owing to the industrialisation of cotton processing in Britain. Gandhi promoted khadi as a direct boycott of the Lancashire cotton industry, linking British imperialism to Indian poverty. He focused on persuading all members of the Indian National Congress to spend some time each day hand-spinning on the charka (spinning wheel). In addition to its point as an economic campaign, the drive for hand-spinning was an attempt to connect the privileged Indian brahmins and lawyers of Congress to connect with the mass of Indian peasantry.
Many prominent figures of the Indian independence movement, including Motilal Nehru, were persuaded by Gandhi to renounce their smart London-made clothes in favour of khadi.
[edit] Fasting
To Gandhi, fasting was an important method of exerting mental control over base desires. In his autobiography, Gandhi analyzes the need to fast to eradicate his desire for delicious, spicy food. He believed that abstention would diminish his sensual faculties, bringing the body increasingly under the mind's absolute control. Gandhi was opposed to the partaking of meat, alcohol, stimulants, salt and most spices, and also eliminated different types of cooking from the food he ate.
Fasting would also put the body through unusual hardship, which Gandhi believed would cleanse the spirit by stimulating the courage to withstand all impulses and pain. Gandhi undertook a "Fast Unto Death" on three notable occasions:
- when he wanted to stop all revolutionary activities after the Chauri Chaura incident of 1922;
- when he feared that the 1934 communal award giving separate electorates to Untouchable Hindus would politically divide the Hindu people;
- and in 1947, when he wanted to stop the bloodshed between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal and Delhi.
In all three cases, Gandhi was able to abandon his fast before death. There was some controversy over the 1934 fast, which brought him into conflict with the Untouchable leader B.R. Ambedkar. In the end, Gandhi and Ambedkar both made some concessions to negotiate the Poona Pact, which abandoned the call for separate electorates in turn for voluntary representation and a commitment to abolish untouchability.
Gandhi also used the fasts as a penance, blaming himself for inciting Chauri Chaura and the divisive communal politics of both 1934 and 1947, especially the Partition of India. Gandhi sought to purify his soul and expiate his sins, in what he saw as his role in allowing terrible tragedies to happen. It took a heavy toll on his physical health and often brought him close to death.
[edit] Religion
See Also: Bhagavad Gita, Dharma, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christian anarchism
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 raised as 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".
Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth (satya), non-violence (ahimsa) and the Golden Rule. He was deeply influenced by the Christian teaching of "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 worshipping 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.
Gandhi's religious views are reflected in the hymns his group often sang:
- Vaishnav jan to Call them Vishnava, those who understand the sufferings of others...
- Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram Call him Rama or God or Allah...
[edit] Nehru's India
See Also: Sarvodaya
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.
Sarvodaya is a term meaning 'universal uplift' or 'progress of all'. It was coined by the Gandhian leader Vinoba Bhave to refer to the struggle of post-independence Gandhians to ensure that self-determination and equality reached the masses and the downtrodden. Sarvodaya workers associated with Vinoba, including Jaya Prakash Narayan and Dada Dharmadhikari, undertook various projects aimed at encouraging popular self-organisation during the 1950s and 1960s. Many groups descended from these networks continue to function locally in India today.
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 the Bhoodan 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.[citation needed]
The Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was often considered Gandhi's successor, although he was not religious and often disagreed with Gandhi. He was, however, deeply influenced by Gandhi personally as well as politically, and used his premiership to pursue 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, in the face of strong opposition from orthodox Hindus.
Not all of Nehru's policies were Gandhian. 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 were criticised for removing the right of property and freedoms from the landowing peasants of Gujarat for whom Gandhi had fought for in the early 1920s. Nehru's socialism sometimes conflicted with Gandhism.
Nehru's biggest failure is often considered to be the 1962 Sino-Indian War, though his policy is said to have been inspired by Gandhian pacifism. In this instance, it 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 off-guard with lack of supplies and reinforcements.
[edit] Freedom
See Also: Apartheid, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, American Civil Rights Movement
Gandhi's deep commitment and disciplined belief in non-violent civil disobedience as a way to oppose tyranny, oppression and injustice has inspired many subsequent political figures, including 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 Indian residents oppressed by the racist, white minority South African regime inspired the later work of the African National Congress. From the 1950s, the ANC organized non-violent civil disobedience akin to the campaign advanced by the Indian National Congress under the inspiration of Gandhi between the 1920s and 1940s. ANC activists braved the sticks and bullets of the police, water-hoses, tear gas and dogs to protest against tyranny, racism and oppression in South Africa. Many, especially Mandela, languished for decades in jail, while the world outside was divided in its effort to remove apartheid. Steve Biko, perhaps the most vocal adherent to non-violent civil resistance, was allegedly murdered in 1977 by agents of the regime.
When the first universal, free elections were held in South Africa in 1994, the ANC was elected and Mandela became President. Mandela 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.
Martin Luther King Jr., a young Christian priest and leader of the American Civil Rights Movement seeking the liberation of African Americans from racial segregation in the American South, and also from economic and social injustice and political disenfranchisement, traveled to India in 1962 to meet Jawaharlal Nehru. The two discussed Gandhi's teachings, and the methodology of organizing peaceful resistance. The graphic imagery of black protestors being hounded by police, beaten and brutalized, evoked admiration for King and the protestors across America and the world, and precipitated the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
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.
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi 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 military rule.
[edit] Criticism and controversy
See Also: Partition of India, Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
In post-Gandhi India, public adherence to Gandhi's views and teachings became a truism among politicians. Congress politicians sought to exploit his legacy, arguing 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.
Wearing a white khadi kurta and dhoti, or khadi pants with a Gandhi topi (cap) became the uniform of the members of Parliament, politicians and political activists around India. Wearing a suit became a symbol of elitism and the Western attack on India's culture, and a taboo as far as politics and social work was concerned.
There has been some controversy over the presentation of Gandhi as the man who single-handedly won India its freedom, on the grounds that this undermines the contribution of tens of millions of Indian freedom fighters, and scores of distinguished Indian leaders, both within the Congress and outside it.
Gandhi's rigid ahimsa implies pacifism, and is thus a source of criticism from across the political spectrum. His view that one should not resist even an armed invasion of one's country, and his comments that the British people should have offered no resistance to Nazi Germany (see above) and that the people victimized in the holocaust should have committed mass suicide to prevent Nazis from committing the sin of killing them (see Mohandas Gandhi at Wikiquote), and to protest against the evil they were committing, have been viewed as grossly extreme and impractical. Some critics have seen Gandhi's attitude as outrightly insulting to the victims of the holocaust and the peoples subjected to the attacks of Nazi forces.
However on the contrary to the above arguments two letters by Gandhi to Hitler show he had no sympathy for Nazism. "We have found in non-violence a force which, if organized, can without doubt match itself against a combination of all the most violent forces in the world. In non-violent technique, as I have said, there is no such thing as defeat. It is all ‘do or die’ without killing or hurting. It can be used practically without money and obviously without the aid of science of destruction which you have brought to such perfection. It is a marvel to me that you do not see that it is nobody’s monopoly. If not the British, some other power will certainly improve upon your method and beat you with your own weapon. You are leaving no legacy to your people of which they would feel proud. They cannot take pride in a recital of cruel deed, however skilfully planned. I, therefore, appeal to you in the name of humanity to stop the war…"
Many conservative Hindus blame Gandhi for being too conciliatory and appeasing to India's Muslims and Untouchables. Gandhi is criticised for not forcing Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslim separatist leader, to drop his demand for Pakistan; for compromising with the divisive, communal politics supposedly espoused by low-caste and untouchable Hindus; and for acquiescing to the Partition of India. Gandhi was also criticised when he sought a comprehensive assurance of non-violence and non-intimidation towards Indian Muslims from the Hindus and Sikhs of West Bengal, the Punjab and Delhi. It seemed to his critics that Gandhi was more keen to protect Muslims, while a large number of Hindus and Sikhs had also been killed and violently abused while migrating from Pakistan to India.
The Hindu nationalist leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, and the Dalit leader B.R. Ambedkar were prominent critics Gandhi's leadership. Modern Hindutva politicians such as Narendra Modi, Praveen Togadia and others are noted for their criticisms of Gandhi.
[edit] "Without truth, nothing"
See Also: An Autobiography, Or The Story Of My Experiments With Truth
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. He admitted in his autobiography to beating his young wife, and indulging in carnal pleasures out of lust, jealousy and possessiveness, not genuine love. He had eaten meat, smoked a cigarette, and almost visited a prostitute. It was only after much personal turmoil and repeated failures that Gandhi developed his philosophy.
Gandhi disliked having a cult following, and was averse to being addressed to as Mahatma, claiming that he was not a perfect human being.
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 did not see the British as defenders of freedom giving their continuance of imperialist domination in India. He 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. No institution or individual is infallible, save God.
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. Despite this, he held firmly that humans had no right to punish each other. He believed punishment to be the responsibility of God.
[edit] Gandhians today
Despite Gandhi's adherence to Hindu cultural and religious values, Gandhism is broad over everything save the truth, which is definite and inviolable. There have been Muslim Gandhians, such as Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as the "Frontier Gandhi"; Christian Gandhians, such as Horace Alexander; Jewish Gandhians, such as Herman Kallenbach; and atheist Gandhians, such as Jawaharlal Nehru. In Gandhian theory, anyone can be a Gandhian without any discrepancy with his or her faith, profession or lifestyle. Gandhism transcends national boundaries, gender, race and sexual orientation.
To become a Gandhian, one must set upon the same personal journey to seek truth and build one's life around it. It is not necessary to arrive at the same conclusions as Gandhi. But undergoing personal challenges, travails and the testing of one's spirit, resolve and fundamental values is a definitive element.
[edit] See also
| Brahmo Samaj · Prarthana Samaj · Arya Samaj · Ramakrishna Mission · Gandhism · Hindutva · Sri Aurobindo Ashram · Parisada Hindu Dharma |
| Topics |
| Bhakti · Caste · Indian independence movement ·Persecution of Hindus ·Shuddhi ·Women in Hinduism |
| Important Hindu reformers and Hindu revivalist writers |
| Sri Aurobindo · Ananda Coomaraswamy · Alain Daniélou · Koenraad Elst · David Frawley · Sita Ram Goel · M. S. Golwalkar · Mahatma Gandhi · Harsh Narain · Gedong Bagus Oka · The Mother · Srila Prabhupada · Raja Ram Mohun Roy · Ramakrishna · Dayananda Saraswati · V. D. Savarkar · Keshub Chandra Sen · Swami Sivananda · Arun Shourie · Ram Swarup · Debendranath Tagore · Rabindranath Tagore · B. G. Tilak · Vivekananda · Yogananda |
[edit] References
- Dutta, Dadage, M. S. Mishra (1995). Fundamentals of Gandhism. Mittal Publications. ISBN 978-8170996064.
- Weber, Thomas (2006). Gandhi, Gandhism and the Gandhians. Roli Books Pvt. Ltd.. ISBN 8174364684.
- Pani, Narendar (2002). Inclusive Economics: Gandhian Method and Contemporary Policy. Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd.. ISBN 978-0761995807.
- Sharma, R. (1997). Gandhian economics. Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd.. ISBN 978-8171009862.
- Narayan, Shriman (1970). Relevance of Gandhian economics. Navajivan Publishing House. ASIN B0006CDLA8.
[edit] External links
- Relevance of Gandhism in Modern Polity
- Gandhian Trusteeship as an "Instrument of Human Dignity"
- Review of "Gandhian economics"
- Gandhian economics is relevant
- Gandhism and Buddhism PDF
Categories: Articles which may contain original research | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Civil disobedience | Politics of India | Mahatma Gandhi | Nonviolence | Indian independence movement
