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{{Short description|Body of ideas inspired by Mahatma Gandhi}}
'''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.
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
[[Image:Badshah Khan.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan]] of the [[Khudai Khidmatgars]] and [[Gandhi]] of the [[Indian National Congress]]]]
'''Gandhism''' is a body of ideas that describes the inspiration, vision, and the life work of [[Mohandas K. Gandhi]]. It is particularly associated with his contributions to the idea of [[nonviolent resistance]], sometimes also called [[civil resistance]].


The term "Gandhism" 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. A [[:Category:Gandhians|Gandhian]] can mean either an individual who follows, or a specific philosophy which is attributed to, Gandhism.<ref>{{cite book | author = Nicholas F. Gier | title = The Virtue of Nonviolence: From Gautama to Gandhi | publisher = SUNY Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0-7914-5949-2 | page = 222 }}</ref>
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.


However, Gandhi did not approve of the term "Gandhism". As he explained:
==Definition==
{{blockquote|There is no such thing as "Gandhism" and I do not want to leave any sect after me. I do not claim to have originated any new principle or doctrine. I have simply tried in my own way to apply the eternal truths to our daily life and problems...The opinions I have formed and the conclusions I have arrived at are not final. I may change them tomorrow. I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.<ref>Gwilym Beckerlegge, World religions reader, 2001</ref>}}


In the absence of a "Gandhism" approved by Gandhi himself, there is a school of thought that one has to derive what Gandhism stands for, from his life and works. One such deduction is a philosophy based on "truth" and "non-violence" in the following sense. First, one should acknowledge and accept the truth that people are different at all levels ("truth"). Second, one should never resort to violence to settle inherent differences between human beings at any level: from between two people to two nations to two races or two religions ("non-violence").
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.


==Antecedents==
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.
Although Gandhi's thought is unique in its own right, it is not without ideological parents. Gandhi has in his own writings specified the inspiration for his saying certain things. It can be said that it is his exposure to the West, during his time in London, that compelled him to look at his position on various religious, social, and political affairs.


Soon after his arrival in London, he came under the influence of [[Henry Stephens Salt]], who was not yet the famous campaigner and social reformer that he would later become. Salt's first work, ''A plea for vegetarianism'' turned Gandhi towards the question of vegetarianism and food habits. It was also around this time that Gandhi joined vegetarian societies in London. Salt eventually became Gandhi's friend too. Talking of the significance of Salt's work, historian Ramachandra Guha said in his work ''Gandhi before India'': "For our visiting Indian, however, the Vegetarian Society was a shelter that saved him. The young Gandhi had little interest in the two great popular passions of late nineteenth-century London, the theatre and sport. Imperial and socialist politics left him cold. However, in the weekly meetings of the vegetarians of London he found a cause, and his first English friends."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gandhi before India|last=Guha|first=Ramachandra|publisher=Allen Lane|year=2013|isbn=978-9-351-18322-8}}</ref> Salt's work allowed Gandhi for the first time to take part in collective action. Salt later went on to write a biography of [[Henry David Thoreau]], who had a profound impact on Gandhi. Although Thoreau's 1854 book ''[[Walden]]'' could as well have moved Gandhi, it was his 1849 essay ''[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Civil Disobedience]]'' that was of greater importance. Gandhi was already in the midst of a form of civil disobedience in South Africa when he read Thoreau. Not only did he adopt the name for the kind of struggle that he would become a champion of, but also adopted the means of breaking laws in order to call for their reform. In 1907, Thoreau's name first appeared in the journal that Gandhi was then editing, ''[[Indian Opinion]]'', where Gandhi called Thoreau's logic 'incisive' and 'unanswerable'.<ref>Gandhi, MK (26 October 1907). ''Indian Opinion'': 438.</ref>
It should be noted that even the [[Indian Independence Movement]] was not exempt from Gandhi's commitment to Truth.


Gandhi's residence in South Africa itself sought inspiration from another Western literary figure—[[Leo Tolstoy]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gandhi before India|last=Guha|first=Ramachandra|publisher=Allen Lane|year=2012}}</ref> Leo Tolstoy's critique of institutional Christianity and faith in the love of the spirit greatly moved him. He would after becoming a popular political activist write the foreword to Tolstoy's essay, ''A letter to a Hindu''. Gandhi exchanged letters with Tolstoy and named his ashram [[Tolstoy Farm]]. In Gandhian thought, Tolstoy's 1894 book ''[[The Kingdom of God Is Within You]]'' sits alongside ''A plea'' and ''Civil Disobedience''.
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.


Tolstoy Farm was Gandhi's experiment of his utopian political economy—later to be called 'Gram Swaraj'. One key source of this concept was [[John Ruskin]]'s 1862 book ''[[Unto This Last]]'' in which Ruskin critiques the 'economic man' (this was written after Ruskin's retreat from Art criticism for which he was well-known). Gandhi tried in all his Ashrams a system of self-sufficiency and decentralised economies. Gandhi was gifted this book by his close associate Henry Polak in South Africa. The philosophy of Ruskin urged Gandhi to translate this work into Gujarati.
Gandhi stopped all nationwide civil resistance in 1922 upon the ugly [[Chauri Chaura]] incident. He would forsake political independence for truth.


In ''Indian Opinion'' there is mention of [[Giuseppe Mazzini]], [[Edward Carpenter]], [[Sir Henry Maine]], and [[Helena Blavatsky]]. Gandhi's first exploration of pluralism can be said to have begun with his association with the Jain guru near home, Raychandbhai Mehta.
''The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction''


==''Satyagraha''==
Gandhism focuses on the core principles of peace, ''ahimsa'' (non violence), self-reliance, freedom and justice.
{{Main|Satyagraha}}


Satyagraha is formed by two Sanskrit words Satya (truth) and Agraha (seek/desire). The term was popularised during the [[Indian Independence Movement]], and is used in many [[Languages of India|Indian languages]] including [[Hindi]].
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]].


===Satya===
==In Nehru's India: Economics, Defense and Secularism==
The pivotal and defining element of Gandhism is [[satya]],{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} a [[Sanskrit]] word for truth.<ref name=aam>[[Arthur Anthony Macdonell|A. A. Macdonell]], Sanskrit English Dictionary, Asian Educational Services, {{ISBN|978-8120617797}}, page 330-331</ref><ref>J. Wentzel Vrede van Huyssteen et al. (2003), Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, Thomson Gale, {{ISBN|0-02-865704-7}}, page 405</ref> It also refers to a virtue in [[Indian religions]], referring to being truthful in one's thought, speech and action. Satya is also called as truth.<ref name=knt>KN Tiwari (1998), Classical Indian Ethical Thought, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120816077}}, page 87</ref>
Gandhi's death in 1948 left a nascent, independent [[India]] devastated. Hundreds of millions of people thirsted for the security and leadership which the little old man inspired. And though India was finally independent, the country's battles against poverty, illiteracy, discrimination, violence and disease were only beginning.


Gandhi said:- "The truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction."<ref>Nonviolence By Senthil Ram, Ralph Summy, 2007</ref>
The country's young, energetic Prime Minister, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], a student of Gandhi, was given this task of leadership. Nehru always claimed his work through 17 years of premiership to have been inspired by Gandhi's vision for India.


==Pacifism and Ahimsa==
Nehru was a sympathizer of socialist thought and beliefs. But he did not agree with [[Lenin]], [[Mao Zedong]] and [[Stalin]] in their interpretations of inevitable class warfare. Although land reform was one of his first priorities, distributing land to tens of millions of landless, poor farmers, no indiscriminate seizures of property or victimization took place. Famous was the '''Bhoodan''' movement of the 1950s, where social workers (famously the socialist [[Jaya Prakash Narayan]]) encouraged landlords and capitalists to give land to landless farmers by their own free will, out of goodwill for their poorer, fellow Indians, and for the sake of the country's progress and social harmony. This system eradicated the force, violence and hate-filled propaganda of the Communists in the [[USSR]] and [[China]], even though progress, while significant, was slow as well.
{{see also|Brahmacharya|Ahimsa|Henry David Thoreau|Leo Tolstoy}}


The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonviolent resistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Jain contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography, ''The Story of My Experiments with Truth''. He was quoted as saying that:
Nehru also embraced an internationalist foreign policy committed to peaceful diplomacy as the means of resolving disputes between nations. He was a great, early champion of the [[United Nations]], and a founding leader of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]], which grew to over 120 member nations across [[Asia]] and [[Africa]], who did not want the polarization and militarization of the US-USSR [[Cold War]].


:"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?"<ref>page 388, The collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, by Gandhi (Mahatma), India. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Publications Division</ref>
Inspired by Gandhi and the [[Indian Independence Movement]] was Nehru's strong opposition to continuing British and French imperialism in parts of Asia and Africa. Nehru backed [[Julius Nyerere]] of [[Tanzania]] and [[Ben Bala]] of [[Algeria]] in their respective struggles for independence.


:"It has always been easier to destroy than to create".<ref>Trustworthiness
However, Nehru's interpretations of Gandhi's teachings were considerably more deeply influenced by his own instincts and personal adherence to [[fabian socialism]], an idealist outlook of the world. Nehru was so committed to peaceful dialogue to resolve disputes, he neglected India's defense services. When [[China]] incursed into Indian territory in [[Kashmir]] and the Northeast, Nehru did not respond by taking corrective military action to secure the nation's borders. He neglected the advice of his own Ministers and commanders, and did not prepare a practical defensive strategy to a possible Chinese invasion. The latter occurred in September 1962, precipitating in the [[Sino-Indian War]]. Declaring a ceasefire after a few weeks, China withdrew from the northeastern states to the international boundary, the disputed [[McMahon Line]], but did not relinquish their seizures in Kashmir, which to this day are subject of conflict and dispute. India's perceived military weakness was noted by its other rival, [[Pakistan]], and led to the [[1965 Indo-Pak War]] over Kashmir.
by Bruce Glassman – Juvenile Nonfiction – 2008</ref>
:"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for".<ref>Trustworthiness, by Bruce Glassman – Juvenile Nonfiction – 2008</ref>


In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi issued two public appeals for Indians to enlist in the [[British Indian Army]] to fight in the [[World War I|First World War]]. He asserted that fighting in the war would provide Indians necessary self-defense skills that had been eroded by the deep-seated influence of India's ascetic culture, which he disdained.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi|last=Parel|first=Anthony|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-521-11670-1 |editor=Judith Brown |editor2=Anthony Parel |location=New York|pages=154–170|chapter=Gandhi and the State}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi|last=Hardiman|first=David|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-521-11670-1 |editor=Judith Brown |editor2=Anthony Parel|location=New York|pages=239–254|chapter=Gandhi's Global Legacy}}</ref>
Nehru was also hypocritical in his implementation of an anti-colonial foreign policy. Although only too willing to condemn the [[United Kingdom]] and [[France]] and [[Israel]] for the 1956 invasion of the [[Suez Canal]], he chose not to condemn the USSR's invasion of [[Hungary]] in 1957-58 to repress a pro-democracy revolt. Although personally committed to neutrality, Nehru's socialist ambitions drew him closer to the USSR, and more critical of the [[United States]].


This advocacy of violence led some of his staunchest supporters, including his nephew, Maganlal Gandhi, to question whether Gandhi was forsaking his non-violent ideals.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas|publisher=The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.|year=1965|volume=14|location=Ahmedabad|pages=504–505}}</ref> In a July 1918 letter replying to his nephew, Gandhi stated that any conception of non-violence that prohibited self-defense was erroneous. To support this argument, Gandhi criticized the ethics of love and absolute ahimsa (non-violence) he observed in the teachings of Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya. According to Gandhi, this love was mere "sentimentalism", and its concomitant absolute ahimsa "robbed us of our manliness" and "made the people incapable of self-defence". Gandhi wrote that Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya had not grasped the essence of non-violence. Instead Gandhi argued for a non-violence that would "permit [our offspring] to commit violence, to use their strength to fight", since that capacity for violence could be used for the benefit of society, like in "restraining a drunkard from doing evil" or "killing a dog…infected with rabies".<ref name=":3" />
In the relations between Hindus and Muslims, Nehru was all too willing to attack the discrimination of lower caste Hindus and women, but unwilling to attack the same amongst Muslims. Gandhi's sacrifices in ensuring that Muslims were free and protected in India despite the savages of partition and the creation of [[Pakistan]] were translated by Nehru all too willingly as viewing the [[Hindu]] majority as eternally threatening Muslim rights. Not only Hindu society was heavily criticized, nothing was offered to Muslim discrimination of women, and minority vote bank politics which increased the importance of Muslims beyond what is justifiable in a system calling for equality of all. If Muslims make 10% of the population, they cannot be viewed at parity with 82% majority Hindus. True, each individual is equal and free, but the will of a minority cannot subjugate that of the majority of Indians.


By 1924, however, Gandhi's criticism of Swaminarayan and his ethical teachings had turned into admiration. While arguing in a Navjivan newspaper editorial that it was a duty to resort to violence for self-defense against Afghani terrorists, Gandhi admitted that he could not personally adopt this approach because he had chosen the path of love even against his enemies. Gandhi explained that, according to the Hindu scriptures, a single such self-controlled person could eradicate violence from the hearts of one's opposition. It was through this power of love that Gandhi asserted, "what was accomplished in Gujarat by one person, Sahajanand [Swaminarayan], could not be accomplished by the power of the State". Moreover, he said that "The Age of Sahajanand has not come to an end. It is only devotion and self-control like his that are wanted". Ultimately, Gandhi said that while he was attempting Swaminarayan's approach himself, he did "not have the strength of heart to act upon" it the way that Swaminarayan had successfully done.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas|publisher=The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.|year=1965|volume=23|location=Ahmedabad|pages=468–469}}</ref>
In 1986, Nehru's own grandson [[Rajiv Gandhi]], as Prime Minister led his party in passing an amendment to the Constitution, making it mandatory for Muslim women applying for divorce to be tried under Islamic law, not the nation's civil code. As a result, [[Shah Bano]], a Muslim woman who had fled her oppressive husband, received no [[alimony]] and was castigated by conservative Muslim jurists. Rajiv Gandhi pushed through this law for "minority rights" despite the [[Supreme Court of India]] itself calling for the equal treatment under law for all women. Such blatant hyprocisy and appeasement could allow Muslims to construct a [[Taliban]]-style system for their own community, while Hindus must bear the burdens of keeping India secular. And further more, a separate legal system would only ensure a further separation of the two communities within one nation, just as the advocates of [[Pakistan]] wanted a separate nation for Muslims, a demand deeply opposed by Gandhi and Nehru.


Over time, Gandhi's religious thought showed a further influence of Swaminarayan's teachings, as, by 1930, he had included many hymns composed by Swaminarayan poets in his ''Ashram Bhajanavali'', a book of prayers which were used in his twice-daily prayer service.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gandhi's Religious Thought|last=Chatterjee|first=Margaret|publisher=The Macmillan Press, LTD.|year=1983|isbn=978-1-349-05367-4|location=London|pages=156}}</ref> In his writings, he often drew inspiration from the spiritual teachings of Swaminarayan saint-poets [[Nishkulanand Swami]] and [[Muktanand Swami]], the latter being the author of his most frequently used prayer.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/hinduwisdomforal00fran/page/51|title=Hindu Wisdom for All God's Children|last=Clooney|first=Francis X.|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|year=2005|isbn=1-59752-068-3|location=Eugene, Oregon|pages=[https://archive.org/details/hinduwisdomforal00fran/page/51 51]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Rule, Protest, Identity: Aspects of Modern South Asia|last1=Robb|first1=Peter|last2=Taylor|first2=David|publisher=Curzon Press|year=1978|isbn=978-0391008663|pages=121}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Mahatma Gandhi at Work: His Own Story Continued|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas|publisher=Routledge|year=2019|editor-last=Andrews|editor-first=C.F.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/gandhireadersou00gand/page/8|title=The Gandhi reader : a source book of his life and writings|last=Gandhi|first=Mahatma|publisher=Grove Press|year=1994|isbn=0802131611|editor-last=Homer|editor-first=Jack A.|edition=Rev|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gandhireadersou00gand/page/8 8]|oclc=32833421|orig-year=1956}}</ref> Indian sociologist and Gandhian contemporary, N. A. Thoothi, had argued by 1935 that Mahatma Gandhi was "most influenced in his inner-most being… by the teachings of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya above all". Thoothi concluded that "most of [Gandhi’s] thought, activities, and even methods of most of the institutions which he has been building up and serving, have the flavor of Swaminarayan, more than that of any other sect of Hinduism".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Vaishnavas of Gujarat: Being a study of methods of investigation of social phenomena|last=Thoothi|first=N.A.|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co, LTD.|year=1938|location=Calcutta|pages=279}}</ref>
==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 Walesa]] of [[Poland]] and [[Aung San Suu Kyi]] of [[Myanmar]].


On 6 July 1940, Gandhi published an article in ''[[Harijan]]'' which applied these philosophies to the question of British involvement in the [[World War II|Second World War]]. Homer Jack notes in his reprint of this article, "To Every Briton" (''The Gandhi Reader''<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XpWO-GoOhVEC&dq=The+Gandhi+Reader:+A+Sourcebook+of+His+Life+and+Writings&pg=PR14 ''The Gandhi Reader'']</ref>) that, "to Gandhi, all war was wrong, and suddenly it 'came to him like a flash' to appeal to the British to adopt the method of non-violence."<ref>Jack, Homer. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XpWO-GoOhVEC&dq=The+Gandhi+Reader:+A+Sourcebook+of+His+Life+and+Writings&pg=PR13 Gandhi Reader]'', p.344</ref> In this article, Gandhi stated,
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.


:I appeal to every Briton, wherever he may be now, to accept the method of non-violence instead of that of war, for the adjustment of relations between nations and other matters [...] I do not want Britain to be defeated, nor do I want her to be victorious in a trial of brute strength [...] I venture to present you with a nobler and braver way worthier of the bravest soldier. I want you to fight Nazism without arms, or, if I am to maintain military terminology, with non-violent arms. 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. Let them take possession of your beautiful island, with your many beautiful buildings. You will give all these but neither your souls, nor your minds. If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourself, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them [...] my non-violence demands universal love, and you are not a small part of it. It is that love which has prompted my appeal to you.<ref>Jack, Homer. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XpWO-GoOhVEC&dq=The+Gandhi+Reader:+A+Sourcebook+of+His+Life+and+Writings&pg=PR13 Gandhi Reader]'', pp.345–6</ref>
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.


==Economics==
The non-violent [[Solidarity]] movement of [[Lech Walesa]] 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]].
{{Main|Gandhian economics|Swadeshi}}
Gandhi espoused an economic theory of [[simple living]] and [[self-sufficiency]]/import substitution, rather than generating exports like [[Japan]] and [[South Korea]] did. He envisioned a more agrarian India upon independence that would focus on meeting the material needs of its citizenry prior to generating wealth and industrialising.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mia Mahmudur Rahim|author2=Sanjaya Kuruppu|editor1-last=Ngwu|editor1-first=Franklin|editor2-last=Onyeka|editor2-first=Osuji|editor3-last=Frank|editor3-first=Stephen|title=Corporate Governance in Developing and Emerging Markets|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|url=http://www.tandfebooks.com/isbn/9781315666020|chapter=Corporate Governance in India: The Potential for Ghandism|doi=10.4324/9781315666020|isbn=9781315666020}}</ref>


===Khadi===
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.
{{wikisource|The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_V/The_Birth_of_Khadi|The Birth of 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, as well as 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.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}


The clothing policy was designed as a protest against the economic policies of the colonial government. Ever since the direct establishment of [[The Crown|Crown]] control in 1857, Indians were forced to purchase clothing at artificially inflated prices since the colonial authorities would purchase cotton from Indian mill owners and ship them to Britain, where it was processed into clothing which was shipped back to India. Gandhi targeted foreign-made clothing imports to demonstrate his vision of an independent India which did not rely on foreign influence. He focused on persuading all members of the [[Indian National Congress]] to spend some time each day hand-spinning on their [[Spinning wheel#Charkha|charkhas]] (spinning wheel). In addition to its purpose as an economic campaign, the drive for hand-spinning was an attempt to connect the privileged Indian [[brahmin]]s and lawyers in Congress with the mass of Indian peasantry.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}
==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.


Many prominent figures of the [[Indian independence movement]], including [[Motilal Nehru]], were persuaded by Gandhi to renounce their Western style-dress in favour of khadi.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}
Gandhi was often quoted by Americans opposed to the [[Vietnam War]] in the 1960s and 1970s. [[Pacifist]]s who have opposed even wars to liberate countries and defeat dictators cite the beliefs of Gandhi in [[Pacifism]].


==Fasting==
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.


To Gandhi, [[fasting]] was an important method of exerting mental control over base desires. In his autobiography, Gandhi analyses 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.
==The Gandhism of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi==


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:
''I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills''


*when he wanted to stop all revolutionary activities after the [[Chauri Chaura incident]] of 1922;
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]].
*when he feared that the 1932 [[Communal Award]] giving separate electorates to [[Dalit (outcaste)|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 1932 fast, which brought him into conflict with the other great 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 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.


Gandhi also used the fasts as a penance, blaming himself for inciting Chauri Chaura and the divisive communal politics of both 1932 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.
The works of political thinkers and literary figures like [[Henry David Thoreau]] and [[Leo Tolstoy]] shape and influence political Gandhism, but reach to its depth and character.


===Nonviolence===
==Religion==
{{Further|Hindu–Muslim unity}}
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:
{{see also|Bhagavad Gita|Dharma|Hinduism|Jainism|Buddhism}}
Gandhi described his religious beliefs as being rooted in Hinduism as well and the Bhagavad Gita:


:"Hinduism as I know it 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".<ref name="ReferenceA">Encyclopaedia of Indian philosophy by Vraj Kumar Pandey – History – 2007</ref>
"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:


He professed the philosophy of Hindu Universalism (also see [[Universalism]]), which maintains that all religions contain truth and therefore worthy of toleration and respect. It was articulated by Gandhi:
"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)


:"After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that all religions are true all religions have some error in them; all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible."<ref>M. K. Gandhi, All Men Are Brothers: Life and Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as told in his own words, Paris, UNESCO 1958, p 60.</ref>
===Truth===
The embracing of nonviolence was part of Gandhi's wider mission to seek truth (The Story of My Experiments with Truth). He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself.


Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth (satya), non-violence (ahimsa) and the Golden Rule.
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:


Despite his belief in Hinduism, Gandhi was also critical of many of the social practices of Hindus and sought to reform the religion.
"The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction".


:"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".<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
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.


He then went on to say:
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.


:"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."<ref>Mahatma Gandhi and comparative religion – Page 54, by K.L. Seshagiri Rao – Biography & Autobiography – 1990</ref>
===Vegetarianism===
Gandhi was critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the principles on which they were based.
Although he experimented with eating meat in India when he was very young, he later became a strict vegetarian. He wrote books on the subject while in London, having met vegetarian campaigner Henry Salt at gatherings of the Vegetarian Society. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in [[Hindu]] and [[Jain]] traditions in India, and, in his native land of [[Gujarat]], most Hindus were vegetarian. He experimented with various diets and concluded that a vegetarian diet should be enough to satisfy the minimum requirements of the body. He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a political weapon. He refused to eat until his death or his demands were met.
:


Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:
===Celibacy===
Gandhi gave up sexual intercourse at the age of 36, becoming totally celibate while still married. This decision was deeply influenced by the Hindu idea of [brahmacharya]]—spiritual and practical purity—largely associated with celibacy. Gandhi did not however believe that this was something that everyone should take up. In his autobiography he tells of his battle against lustful urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood bride, Kasturba. He felt it his personal obligation to remain celibate so that he could learn to love, rather than lust. Part of this may also have been influenced by the fact that his father passed away while he was making love to his wife.


:"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a [[Buddhist]] and a Jew."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wIiIWWjWargC&pg=PA5 A Man Called Bapu], Subhadra Sen Gupta, Pratham Books, 2008. P.5</ref>
===Silence===
Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mouna (silence) and shanti (peace). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.


Gandhi's religious views are reflected in the hymns his group often sang:
===Clothing===
* [[Vaishnav jan to]] Call them Vishnava, those who understand the sufferings of others...
Returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India. He advocated the use of homespun cloth (khadi). Gandhi and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. It was Gandhi's view that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress.
* [[Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram]] Call him [[Rama]] or God or Allah...<ref>{{Cite book |last=Singh |first=Dr Mahesh Kumar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5mlaEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Vaishnav+jan+to+Call+them+Vishnava,+those+who+understand+the+sufferings+of+others...%22&pg=PA7 |title=The Humanistic Philosophy of Gandhi |date=2022-01-22 |publisher=K.K. Publications |page=7 |language=en}}</ref>


===Religion===
==Nehru's India==
{{See also|Sarvodaya}}
Gandhi questioned religious practices and doctrines regardless of traditions or beliefs. On the subject of Christianity he noted that:


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 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:


''[[Sarvodaya]]'' is a term meaning 'universal uplift' or 'progress of all'. It was coined by Gandhi in 1908 as a title for his translation of [[John Ruskin]]'s ''Unto This Last''. Later, nonviolence leader [[Vinoba Bhave]] used the term 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.
"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".


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. In fact, on 15 January 1942, in the AICC session Gandhi openly proclaimed Nehru as his successor.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Rajaji, A life|last=Gandhi|first=Rajmohan|publisher=Penguin India|year=1997}}</ref>
He then went on to say:


Nehru's foreign policy was staunchly [[Anti-imperialism|anti-colonialism]] and [[Neutral country|neutral]] in the [[Cold War]]. Nehru backed the independence movement in Tanzania and other African nations, as well as the [[Civil rights movement]] in the United States and the [[Internal resistance to apartheid|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]].{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}
"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:


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.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}
"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:


Not all of Nehru's policies were Gandhian. Nehru refused to condemn the [[Soviet Union|USSR]]'s 1956–57 [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|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 landowning peasants of [[Gujarat]] for whom Gandhi had fought in the early 1920s. India's economic policies under Nehru were highly different from Gandhi's with Nehru following a socialist model. Nehru also brought Goa and Hyderabad into the Indian union through military invasion.
"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:


At this point it is important to note that Gandhi believed in a kind of socialism but one that was very different from Nehru's. In praise of socialism, Gandhi once said, "... socialism is as pure as a crystal. It therefore requires crystal-like means to achieve it."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas|date=13 July 1946|title=The Means|journal=Harijan}}</ref> Moreover, Gandhi was conscious of the fact that Nehru's ideology differed from his but did not object to that as he was aware that this was a well-thought-out standpoint. He called this a difference in emphasis, his being on 'means' while Nehru's being on ends.
"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew".


Nehru's two biggest failures are thought to be: The [[Partition of India]] which he described and justified as "a necessary evil" and which would lead to the bloody and deadly [[Partition riots]]; and the [[Sino-Indian War]] of 1962, though his wartime policy is said to have been influenced 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.
[[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.


==Freedom==
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.
{{see also|Apartheid|Tiananmen Square protests of 1989|Civil Rights Movement}}


Gandhi's deep commitment and disciplined belief in non-violent civil disobedience as a way to oppose forms of oppression or injustice has inspired many subsequent political figures, including [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] of the United States,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gandhi, Mohandas K. {{!}} The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/gandhi-mohandas-k |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=kinginstitute.stanford.edu |language=en}}</ref> [[Julius Nyerere]] of Tanzania,<ref>Smith, William Edgett (1973). ''Nyerere of Tanzania''. London: Victor Gollanz. p. 59. [[ISBN (identifier)|ISBN]] [[Special:BookSources/9780575015104|<bdi>9780575015104</bdi>]].</ref> [[Nelson Mandela]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nelson Mandela's Umbilical Bond with Mahatma Gandhi |url=https://diplomatist.com/2020/07/23/nelson-mandelas-umbilical-bond-with-mahatma-gandhi/ |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=Diplomatist |language=en}}</ref> and [[Steve Biko]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steven Bantu Biko {{!}} AFR 110: Intro to Contemporary Africa |url=https://sites.psu.edu/afr110/2014/10/18/steven-bantu-biko/ |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=sites.psu.edu}}</ref> of South Africa, [[Lech Wałęsa]] of Poland<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mahatma Gandhi guided my conscience during Solidarity movement: Lech Walesa |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/voices/story/19940331-mahatma-gandhi-guided-my-conscience-during-solidarity-movement-lech-walesa-808968-1994-03-30 |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=India Today |date=31 March 1994 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Nanda |first=B. R. |title=Gandhi and Non-violence |date=2004-10-21 |work=In Search of Gandhi |pages=247–253 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195672039.003.0028 |access-date=2024-03-16 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195672039.003.0028|isbn=978-0-19-567203-9 }}</ref> and [[Aung San Suu Kyi]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Aung San Suu Kyi: In Gandhi's Footsteps - Articles : On and By Gandhi |url=https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/gandhi's_footsteps.htm |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=www.mkgandhi.org |language=en}}</ref> of Myanmar.
===Faith===
In spite of their deep reverence to each other, Gandhi and [[Rabindranath Tagore]] got involved in protracted debates more than once. These debates exemplify the philosophical differences between the two most famous Indians at the time. On January 15, 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and cause extensive damage and loss of life. Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans, people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of untouchability may be.


Gandhi's early life work in South Africa between the years 1910 and 1915, for the improved rights of Indian residents living under the white minority South African government inspired the later work of the [[African National Congress]] (ANC). From the 1950s, the ANC organised 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 harsh tactics of the police to protest against the oppressive South African government. 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 government.
==Without Truth, Nothing==
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 honoured Gandhi as the man who inspired the freedom struggle of black South Africans. Statues of Gandhi have been erected in [[KwaZulu-Natal Province|Natal]], [[Pretoria]] and [[Johannesburg]].


[[Martin Luther King Jr.]], a young Christian minister and a leader of the [[civil rights movement]] seeking the emancipation 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 organising peaceful resistance. The graphic imagery of black protesters being hounded by police, beaten and brutalised, evoked admiration for King and the protesters across America and the world, and precipitated the [[1964 Civil Rights Act]].
The actions and reactions of Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi exposed Mahatma Gandhi to unjust criticism, for Gandhi himself was connected with the actions of other people in different times. His becoming a pacifist-icon have caused conservatives and nationalists to resent his teachings all together.


The non-violent [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] movement of [[Lech Wałęsa]] of Poland overthrew a Soviet-backed communist government after two decades of peaceful resistance and strikes in 1989, precipitating the downfall of the Soviet Union.
Modern Indian politicians, liberals and peace-lovers worldwide have incorporated a lot of their own instincts, passions and understandings sufficiently to corrupt the common meaning of Gandhism. Gandhism is seen today as outright [[pacifism]], [[internationalism]] and [[socialism]]. This understanding is too broad and quite wrong.


Myanmar's [[Aung San Suu Kyi]] was put 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. She was released in November 2010, when free elections were to be held.
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.


=="Without truth, nothing"==
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, especially a human one, is infallible, save [[God]].


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 hitting his wife when he was young,<ref>Mohatma Gandhi, (1957) An autobiography: The story of my experiments with truth (M. H. Desai Trans.). Beacon Press. pp. 24–25</ref> 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 hustler. It was only after much personal turmoil and repeated failures that Gandhi developed his philosophy.
And while Gandhi believed that all humans are susceptible to sinful actions and behavior, and that he and [[Joseph Stalin]] 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.


Gandhi disliked having a cult following, and was averse to being addressed as ''[[Mahatma]]'', claiming that he was not a perfect human being.
==Who Can Be A Gandhian?==


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]].
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.


==Gandhians==
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.
There have been Muslim Gandhians, such as [[Abdul Ghaffar Khan]], known as the "Frontier Gandhi";<ref>{{Cite web |title=Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan |url=https://kp.gov.pk/page/khan_abdul_ghaffar_khan_1/page_type/person |website=kp.gov.pk}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Nanda |first=B. R. |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/3422 |title=In Search of Gandhi: Essays and Reflections |date=2004-10-21 |publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-908141-7 |pages=107–123 |language=en |chapter=Twelve Abdul Ghaffar Khan: the ‘Frontier Gandhi’}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=6g. Abdul Ghaffar Khan: the Frontier Gandhi |url=https://contensis.uwaterloo.ca/sites/sandboxes/admin/testCopy-1205/lecture-content/module-6/6g.aspx |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=contensis.uwaterloo.ca}}</ref> under the influence of Gandhi, he organised the Pathans of the Northwest Frontier as early as 1919 to support the independence movement.<ref>Ronald M. McCarthy and Gene Sharp, ''Nonviolent action: a research guide'' (1997) p. 317</ref> Christian Gandhians include the Briton [[Horace Alexander]]<ref>Horace Alexander, ''Consider India: An Essay in Values'' (London: Asia, 1961), p. 73</ref> and [[Civil rights movement|civil rights leader]] [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref>Mary Elizabeth King, ''Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr: the power of nonviolent action'' (UNESCO Publishing, 1999), p. 183</ref> Jewish Gandhians include Gandhi's close associate [[Hermann Kallenbach]]. Atheist Gandhians include [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]. Bangladeshi writer, columnist [[Syed Abul Maksud]] is a notable Gandhian in Bangladesh.


==Promotion of Gandhian ideas==
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.
Many committees were formed to promote Gandhian ideas, one such committee was "Committee for the promotion of Gandhiji's teaching and his way of life" in 1957. In its meeting committee recommended to the Ministry of Education to prepare three books incorporating Gandhiji's contribution in important fields one each for primary, secondary and University stage. Ministry of Education was recommended by the committee to celebrate Gandhi week at school level etc. Committee worked hard for collection of work on Mahatma Gandhi and many journals have also been published to promote Gandhian ideas. One of the most well-known is ''Gandhi Marg'',
an English-language journal published since 1957 by the [[Gandhi Peace Foundation]].<ref>[[Ananda M. Pandiri]],
''A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography on Mahatma Gandhi:Biographies, Works by Gandhi, and Bibliographical Sources''
Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995
{{ISBN|0313253374}} (p. 349).</ref>


Harold Dwight Lasswell, a political scientist and communications theorist, defined propaganda as the management of eclectic attitudes by manipulation of significant symbols. Based on this definition of Propaganda, Gandhi made use of significant symbols to drive his ideal of an independent Indian nation.<ref>Barlow, David M., and Brett Mills. "Harold D. Lasswell." Reading media theory: thinkers, approaches and contexts. Second Edition ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2012. 103. Print.</ref>
==References==


His ideas, symbolized in propaganda, stated that India was a nation capable of economic self-sufficiency without the British, a unity transcending religion would make for a stronger nation, and that the most effective method of protest was through passive resistance, including non-violence and the principle of satyagraha. In the "Quit India" speeches, Gandhi says "the proposal for the withdrawal of British power is to enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture. It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and velour, so long as we are not free." On his ideas towards a unified India he said: "Thousands of Mussalmans have told me, that if Hindu-Muslim question was to be solved satisfactorily, it must be done in my lifetime. I should feel flattered at this; but how can I agree to proposal which does not appeal to my reason? Hindu-Muslim unity is not a new thing. Millions of Hindus and Mussalmans have sought after it. I consciously strove for its achievement from my boyhood. While at school, I made it a point to cultivate the friendship of Muslims and Parsi co-students. I believed even at that tender age that the Hindus in India, if they wished to live in peace and amity with the other communities, should assiduously cultivate the virtue of neighbourliness. It did not matter, I felt, if I made no special effort to cultivate the friendship with Hindus, but I must make friends with at least a few Mussalmans. In India too I continued my efforts and left no stone unturned to achieve that unity. It was my life-long aspiration for it that made me offer my fullest co-operation to the Mussalmans in the Khilafat movement. Muslims throughout the country accepted me as their true friend."<ref>Bandopadhaya, Sailesh Kumar. "The "Quit India" Resolution." My non-violence. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Pub. House, 1960. 183-205. Print.</ref> Gandhi's belief in the effectiveness of passive, non-violent resistance has been quoted as being the "belief that non-violence alone will lead men to do right under all circumstances."
* [[Mahatma Gandhi|M.K. Gandhi]]: ''[[The Story of My Experiments with Truth|My Autobiography, Or The Story Of My Experiments With Truth]]'' ([[1929]])

* Rajmohan Gandhi: ''Patel: A Life''
These ideas were symbolized by Gandhi through the use of significant symbols, an important proponent in the acceptance of the ideals he expounded in his speeches and movements. On 3 November 1930, Gandhi gave a speech before the Dandi March which possibly could have been one of Gandhi's last speeches, in which the significant symbol of the march itself demonstrated the exclusively nonviolent struggle to empower a self-sufficient India. Beginning in Ahmedabad and concluding in Dandi, Gujarat, the march saw Gandhi and his supporters directly disobey the [[Rowlatt Act]] which imposed [[History of the British salt tax in India|taxes on salt production]] and enforced the colonial monopoly on the salt market.<ref>Gandhi, M. K., and Mahadev Desai. "On The Eve Of Historic Dandi March." The selected works of Mahatma Gandhi. Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan Publ. House, 1968. 28-30. Print.</ref>
* ''Gandhi'', by [[Richard Attenborough]] (1982)

* ''Civil Disobedience'' by Henry David Thoreau
The Khadi movement, which formed part of the larger swadeshi movement, employed the symbol of burning British-made cloth imports in order to manipulate attitudes towards [[boycott]]ing British goods and rejecting [[Western culture]] and urging the return to ancient, precolonial [[Culture of India|Indian culture]]. Gandhi obtained a wheel and engaged his disciples in spinning their own cloth called Khadi; this commitment to hand spinning was an essential element to Gandhi's philosophy and politics.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=2156064 | pmid=18048775 | doi=10.2105/AJPH.2007.120139 | volume=98 | title=Spinning for India's independence | year=2008 | journal=Am J Public Health | pages=39 | last1 = Brown | first1 = TM | last2 = Fee | first2 = E| issue=1 }}</ref>

On 1 December 1948, Gandhi dictated his speech on the eve of the last fast. Using the fast as a form of significant symbolism, he justifies it as "a fast which a votary of non-violence sometimes feels impelled to undertake by way of protest against some wrong done by society, and this he does when as a votary of Ahimsa has no other remedy left. Such an occasion has come my way." This fast was conducted in line with his idea of a nation's communities and religions brought together. Gandhi's fast was only to end when he was satisfied with the reunion of hearts of all the communities brought about without any outside pressure, but from an awakened sense of duty.<ref>"Speech on the Eve of the Last Fast." Famous Speeches by Mahatma Gandhi. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 March 2014. <http://www.mkgandhi.org/speeches/evelast.htm</ref>

==Criticism and controversy==
{{see also|Partition of India|Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi}}

Gandhi's rigid [[ahimsa]] implies [[pacifism]], and is thus a source of criticism from across the political spectrum.

===Concept of partition===
{{Main|Opposition to the partition of India}}
As a rule, Gandhi was [[Opposition to the partition of India|opposed]] to the concept of [[Partition (politics)|partition]] as it contradicted his vision of religious unity.<ref>reprinted in ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0394714660/ The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas].'', Louis Fischer, ed., 2002 (reprint edition) pp. 106–108.</ref> Of the [[Partition of India|partition of India to create Pakistan]], he wrote in [[Harijan (magazine)|''Harijan'']] on 6 October 1946:

:[The demand for Pakistan] as put forth by the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] is un-Islamic and I have not hesitated to call it sinful. Islam stands for unity and the brotherhood of mankind, not for disrupting the oneness of the human family. Therefore, those who want to divide India into possibly warring groups are enemies alike of India and Islam. They may cut me into pieces but they cannot make me subscribe to something which I consider to be wrong [...] we must not cease to aspire, in spite of [the] wild talk, to befriend all Muslims and hold them fast as prisoners of our love.<ref>reprinted in ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0394714660/ The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas].''Louis Fischer, ed., 2002 (reprint edition) pp. 308–9.</ref>

However, as Homer Jack notes of Gandhi's long correspondence with [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah|Jinnah]] on the topic of Pakistan: "Although Gandhi was personally opposed to the partition of India, he proposed an agreement [...] which provided that the Congress and the Muslim League would cooperate to attain independence under a provisional government, after which the question of partition would be decided by a [[plebiscite]] in the districts having a Muslim majority."<ref>Jack, Homer. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XpWO-GoOhVEC&dq=The+Gandhi+Reader:+A+Sourcebook+of+His+Life+and+Writings&pg=PR13 The Gandhi Reader]'', p. 418.</ref>

These dual positions on the topic of the partition of India opened Gandhi up to criticism from both Hindus and Muslims. [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] and his contemporary fellow-travelers condemned Gandhi for undermining Muslim political rights. [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]] and his allies condemned Gandhi, accusing him of politically [[appeasement|appeasing]] Muslims while turning a blind eye to their [[persecution of Hindus|atrocities against Hindus]], and for allowing the creation of Pakistan (despite having publicly declared that "before partitioning India, my body will have to be cut into two pieces"<ref>"The life and death of Mahatma Gandhi", on BBC News [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/50664.stm], see section "Independence and partition."</ref>).

His refusal to protest against the [[Capital punishment|execution]] of [[Bhagat Singh]], [[Sukhdev]], [[Udham Singh]] and [[Shivaram Rajguru|Rajguru]] by the colonial government was a source of condemnation and intense anger for many Indians.<ref>[http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/onbhagatsingh.htm Mahatma Gandhi on Bhagat Singh].{{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121209000556/http://india_resource.tripod.com/gandhi.html |date=9 December 2012 }}.</ref> Economists, such as [[Jagdish Bhagwati]], have [https://web.archive.org/web/20121105204331/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2006-10-25/india/27797749_1_trade-liberalisation-free-trade-structural-adjustment-loans criticized] Gandhi's ideas of [[swadeshi]].

Of this criticism, Gandhi stated, "There was a time when people listened to me because I showed them how to give fight to the British without arms when they had no arms [...] but today I am told that my non-violence can be of no avail against the [[Religious violence in India|Hindu-Moslem riots]] and, therefore, people should arm themselves for self-defense."<ref>reprinted in ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0394714660/ The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas].'', Louis Fischer, ed., 2002 (reprint edition) p. 311.</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
{{col div|colwidth=40em}}
* [[Christian anarchism]]
* [[Mahatma Gandhi]]
*[[Ambedkarism]]
* [[Nonviolence]]
*[[Civil resistance]]
*[[Gandhigiri]]
* [[Nonviolent resistance]]
* [[Nonresistance]]
*[[Jackie Robinson]]
*[[Martin Luther King Jr.]]
* [[Pacifism]]
*[[Marxism]]
*[[Nelson Mandela]]
*[[Nonviolent resistance]]
*[[Satyagraha]]
*[[Tolstoyan movement]]
*[[Trusteeship (Gandhism)|Trusteeship]]

{{colend}}

==Further reading==
*[[Ram Swarup|Swarup, Ram]] (1955). ''Gandhism and communism: Principles and technique''. New Delhi: J. Prakashan.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

* ''Gandhi today: a report on Mahatma Gandhi's successors'', by Mark Shepard. Published by Shepard Publications, 1987. {{ISBN|0-938497-04-9}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=DQyPbvLvK_sC&dq=Chandi+Prasad+Bhatt&pg=PP1 Excerpts]

==References==
{{Refbegin|}}
* Fischer, Louis. ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0394714660/ The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas].'' Vintage: New York, 2002. (reprint edition) {{ISBN|1-4000-3050-1|}}
*{{cite book|last=Jack|first=Homer|title=The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings |publisher=Grove Press|year=1956|isbn=0-8021-3161-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/gandhireadersou00gand |url-access=registration}}
* Hardiman, David. ''Gandhi in His Time and Ours: The Global Legacy of His Ideas'' (2004) {{ISBN|0-231-13114-3|}}
*
*{{cite book|last=Narayan|first=Shriman|title=Relevance of Gandhian economics|publisher=Navajivan Publishing House|year=1970|id=ASIN B0006CDLA8}}
*{{cite book|last=Pani|first=Narendar|title=Inclusive Economics: Gandhian Method and Contemporary Policy|publisher=Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd.|year=2002|isbn=978-0-7619-9580-7}}
*{{cite book|last=Sharma|first=R.|title=Gandhian economics|publisher=Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd.|year=1997|isbn=978-81-7100-986-2}}
*{{cite book|last=Weber|first=Thomas|title=Gandhi, Gandhism and the Gandhians|publisher=Roli Books Pvt. Ltd.|year=2006|isbn=81-7436-468-4}}
*{{cite book|last=Mashelkar|first=Ramesh|title=Timeless Inspirator-Reliving Gandhi |publisher=Sakal Papers Ltd.|year=2010|isbn=978-93-8057-148-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/timelessinspirat0000unse |url-access=registration}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
*[http://www.mkgandhi.org/philosophy/gandhiphil.htm Gandhian Philosophy in Short]
*[http://bahai-library.com/gandhimohan_gandhi_bahais_nonviolence#9 Gandhian ideals]
*[http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/kumar/kumar4.htm Relevance of Gandhism in Modern Polity]
*[http://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/trusteeship.htm Gandhian Trusteeship as an "Instrument of Human Dignity"]
*[http://www.peacemagazine.org/archive/v14n2p28.htm Review of "Gandhian economics"]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20121014055753/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2005-10-02/edit-page/27850909_1_gandhiji-economics-formulations Gandhian economics is relevant]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070705164639/http://www.iop.or.jp/0414/kawada.pdf Gandhism and Buddhism PDF]
*[http://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/other-books/studies-in-gandhism Studies in Gandhism]

{{Gandhi}}
{{Social and political philosophy}}
{{Indian Independence Movement}}

[[Category:Gandhism| ]]
[[Category:Anti-imperialism in Asia]]
[[Category:Eponymous political ideologies]]
[[Category:Hindu philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Political positions of Indian politicians]]
[[Category:Simple living]]
[[Category:Nonviolence]]

Latest revision as of 02:20, 16 December 2024

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan of the Khudai Khidmatgars and Gandhi of the Indian National Congress

Gandhism is a body of ideas that describes the inspiration, vision, and the life work of Mohandas K. Gandhi. It is particularly associated with his contributions to the idea of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance.

The term "Gandhism" 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. A Gandhian can mean either an individual who follows, or a specific philosophy which is attributed to, Gandhism.[1]

However, Gandhi did not approve of the term "Gandhism". As he explained:

There is no such thing as "Gandhism" and I do not want to leave any sect after me. I do not claim to have originated any new principle or doctrine. I have simply tried in my own way to apply the eternal truths to our daily life and problems...The opinions I have formed and the conclusions I have arrived at are not final. I may change them tomorrow. I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.[2]

In the absence of a "Gandhism" approved by Gandhi himself, there is a school of thought that one has to derive what Gandhism stands for, from his life and works. One such deduction is a philosophy based on "truth" and "non-violence" in the following sense. First, one should acknowledge and accept the truth that people are different at all levels ("truth"). Second, one should never resort to violence to settle inherent differences between human beings at any level: from between two people to two nations to two races or two religions ("non-violence").

Antecedents

[edit]

Although Gandhi's thought is unique in its own right, it is not without ideological parents. Gandhi has in his own writings specified the inspiration for his saying certain things. It can be said that it is his exposure to the West, during his time in London, that compelled him to look at his position on various religious, social, and political affairs.

Soon after his arrival in London, he came under the influence of Henry Stephens Salt, who was not yet the famous campaigner and social reformer that he would later become. Salt's first work, A plea for vegetarianism turned Gandhi towards the question of vegetarianism and food habits. It was also around this time that Gandhi joined vegetarian societies in London. Salt eventually became Gandhi's friend too. Talking of the significance of Salt's work, historian Ramachandra Guha said in his work Gandhi before India: "For our visiting Indian, however, the Vegetarian Society was a shelter that saved him. The young Gandhi had little interest in the two great popular passions of late nineteenth-century London, the theatre and sport. Imperial and socialist politics left him cold. However, in the weekly meetings of the vegetarians of London he found a cause, and his first English friends."[3] Salt's work allowed Gandhi for the first time to take part in collective action. Salt later went on to write a biography of Henry David Thoreau, who had a profound impact on Gandhi. Although Thoreau's 1854 book Walden could as well have moved Gandhi, it was his 1849 essay Civil Disobedience that was of greater importance. Gandhi was already in the midst of a form of civil disobedience in South Africa when he read Thoreau. Not only did he adopt the name for the kind of struggle that he would become a champion of, but also adopted the means of breaking laws in order to call for their reform. In 1907, Thoreau's name first appeared in the journal that Gandhi was then editing, Indian Opinion, where Gandhi called Thoreau's logic 'incisive' and 'unanswerable'.[4]

Gandhi's residence in South Africa itself sought inspiration from another Western literary figure—Leo Tolstoy.[5] Leo Tolstoy's critique of institutional Christianity and faith in the love of the spirit greatly moved him. He would after becoming a popular political activist write the foreword to Tolstoy's essay, A letter to a Hindu. Gandhi exchanged letters with Tolstoy and named his ashram Tolstoy Farm. In Gandhian thought, Tolstoy's 1894 book The Kingdom of God Is Within You sits alongside A plea and Civil Disobedience.

Tolstoy Farm was Gandhi's experiment of his utopian political economy—later to be called 'Gram Swaraj'. One key source of this concept was John Ruskin's 1862 book Unto This Last in which Ruskin critiques the 'economic man' (this was written after Ruskin's retreat from Art criticism for which he was well-known). Gandhi tried in all his Ashrams a system of self-sufficiency and decentralised economies. Gandhi was gifted this book by his close associate Henry Polak in South Africa. The philosophy of Ruskin urged Gandhi to translate this work into Gujarati.

In Indian Opinion there is mention of Giuseppe Mazzini, Edward Carpenter, Sir Henry Maine, and Helena Blavatsky. Gandhi's first exploration of pluralism can be said to have begun with his association with the Jain guru near home, Raychandbhai Mehta.

Satyagraha

[edit]

Satyagraha is formed by two Sanskrit words Satya (truth) and Agraha (seek/desire). The term was popularised during the Indian Independence Movement, and is used in many Indian languages including Hindi.

Satya

[edit]

The pivotal and defining element of Gandhism is satya,[citation needed] a Sanskrit word for truth.[6][7] It also refers to a virtue in Indian religions, referring to being truthful in one's thought, speech and action. Satya is also called as truth.[8]

Gandhi said:- "The truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction."[9]

Pacifism and Ahimsa

[edit]

The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonviolent resistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Jain contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted as saying that:

"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?"[10]
"It has always been easier to destroy than to create".[11]
"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for".[12]

In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi issued two public appeals for Indians to enlist in the British Indian Army to fight in the First World War. He asserted that fighting in the war would provide Indians necessary self-defense skills that had been eroded by the deep-seated influence of India's ascetic culture, which he disdained.[13][14]

This advocacy of violence led some of his staunchest supporters, including his nephew, Maganlal Gandhi, to question whether Gandhi was forsaking his non-violent ideals.[13][15] In a July 1918 letter replying to his nephew, Gandhi stated that any conception of non-violence that prohibited self-defense was erroneous. To support this argument, Gandhi criticized the ethics of love and absolute ahimsa (non-violence) he observed in the teachings of Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya. According to Gandhi, this love was mere "sentimentalism", and its concomitant absolute ahimsa "robbed us of our manliness" and "made the people incapable of self-defence". Gandhi wrote that Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya had not grasped the essence of non-violence. Instead Gandhi argued for a non-violence that would "permit [our offspring] to commit violence, to use their strength to fight", since that capacity for violence could be used for the benefit of society, like in "restraining a drunkard from doing evil" or "killing a dog…infected with rabies".[15]

By 1924, however, Gandhi's criticism of Swaminarayan and his ethical teachings had turned into admiration. While arguing in a Navjivan newspaper editorial that it was a duty to resort to violence for self-defense against Afghani terrorists, Gandhi admitted that he could not personally adopt this approach because he had chosen the path of love even against his enemies. Gandhi explained that, according to the Hindu scriptures, a single such self-controlled person could eradicate violence from the hearts of one's opposition. It was through this power of love that Gandhi asserted, "what was accomplished in Gujarat by one person, Sahajanand [Swaminarayan], could not be accomplished by the power of the State". Moreover, he said that "The Age of Sahajanand has not come to an end. It is only devotion and self-control like his that are wanted". Ultimately, Gandhi said that while he was attempting Swaminarayan's approach himself, he did "not have the strength of heart to act upon" it the way that Swaminarayan had successfully done.[16]

Over time, Gandhi's religious thought showed a further influence of Swaminarayan's teachings, as, by 1930, he had included many hymns composed by Swaminarayan poets in his Ashram Bhajanavali, a book of prayers which were used in his twice-daily prayer service.[17] In his writings, he often drew inspiration from the spiritual teachings of Swaminarayan saint-poets Nishkulanand Swami and Muktanand Swami, the latter being the author of his most frequently used prayer.[18][19][20][21] Indian sociologist and Gandhian contemporary, N. A. Thoothi, had argued by 1935 that Mahatma Gandhi was "most influenced in his inner-most being… by the teachings of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya above all". Thoothi concluded that "most of [Gandhi’s] thought, activities, and even methods of most of the institutions which he has been building up and serving, have the flavor of Swaminarayan, more than that of any other sect of Hinduism".[22]

On 6 July 1940, Gandhi published an article in Harijan which applied these philosophies to the question of British involvement in the Second World War. Homer Jack notes in his reprint of this article, "To Every Briton" (The Gandhi Reader[23]) that, "to Gandhi, all war was wrong, and suddenly it 'came to him like a flash' to appeal to the British to adopt the method of non-violence."[24] In this article, Gandhi stated,

I appeal to every Briton, wherever he may be now, to accept the method of non-violence instead of that of war, for the adjustment of relations between nations and other matters [...] I do not want Britain to be defeated, nor do I want her to be victorious in a trial of brute strength [...] I venture to present you with a nobler and braver way worthier of the bravest soldier. I want you to fight Nazism without arms, or, if I am to maintain military terminology, with non-violent arms. 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. Let them take possession of your beautiful island, with your many beautiful buildings. You will give all these but neither your souls, nor your minds. If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourself, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them [...] my non-violence demands universal love, and you are not a small part of it. It is that love which has prompted my appeal to you.[25]

Economics

[edit]

Gandhi espoused an economic theory of simple living and self-sufficiency/import substitution, rather than generating exports like Japan and South Korea did. He envisioned a more agrarian India upon independence that would focus on meeting the material needs of its citizenry prior to generating wealth and industrialising.[26]

Khadi

[edit]

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, as well as 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.[citation needed]

The clothing policy was designed as a protest against the economic policies of the colonial government. Ever since the direct establishment of Crown control in 1857, Indians were forced to purchase clothing at artificially inflated prices since the colonial authorities would purchase cotton from Indian mill owners and ship them to Britain, where it was processed into clothing which was shipped back to India. Gandhi targeted foreign-made clothing imports to demonstrate his vision of an independent India which did not rely on foreign influence. He focused on persuading all members of the Indian National Congress to spend some time each day hand-spinning on their charkhas (spinning wheel). In addition to its purpose as an economic campaign, the drive for hand-spinning was an attempt to connect the privileged Indian brahmins and lawyers in Congress with the mass of Indian peasantry.[citation needed]

Many prominent figures of the Indian independence movement, including Motilal Nehru, were persuaded by Gandhi to renounce their Western style-dress in favour of khadi.[citation needed]

Fasting

[edit]

To Gandhi, fasting was an important method of exerting mental control over base desires. In his autobiography, Gandhi analyses 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 1932 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 1932 fast, which brought him into conflict with the other great 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 1932 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.

Religion

[edit]

Gandhi described his religious beliefs as being rooted in Hinduism as well and the Bhagavad Gita:

"Hinduism as I know it 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".[27]

He professed the philosophy of Hindu Universalism (also see Universalism), which maintains that all religions contain truth and therefore worthy of toleration and respect. It was articulated by Gandhi:

"After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that all religions are true all religions have some error in them; all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible."[28]

Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth (satya), non-violence (ahimsa) and the Golden Rule.

Despite his belief in Hinduism, Gandhi was also critical of many of the social practices of Hindus and sought to reform the religion.

"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".[27]

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."[29]

Gandhi was critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the principles on which they were based.

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."[30]

Gandhi's religious views are reflected in the hymns his group often sang:

Nehru's India

[edit]

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 Gandhi in 1908 as a title for his translation of John Ruskin's Unto This Last. Later, nonviolence leader Vinoba Bhave used the term 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.

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. In fact, on 15 January 1942, in the AICC session Gandhi openly proclaimed Nehru as his successor.[32]

Nehru's foreign policy was staunchly anti-colonialism and neutral in the Cold War. Nehru backed the independence movement in Tanzania and other African nations, as well as the Civil rights movement in the United States 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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

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 landowning peasants of Gujarat for whom Gandhi had fought in the early 1920s. India's economic policies under Nehru were highly different from Gandhi's with Nehru following a socialist model. Nehru also brought Goa and Hyderabad into the Indian union through military invasion.

At this point it is important to note that Gandhi believed in a kind of socialism but one that was very different from Nehru's. In praise of socialism, Gandhi once said, "... socialism is as pure as a crystal. It therefore requires crystal-like means to achieve it."[33] Moreover, Gandhi was conscious of the fact that Nehru's ideology differed from his but did not object to that as he was aware that this was a well-thought-out standpoint. He called this a difference in emphasis, his being on 'means' while Nehru's being on ends.

Nehru's two biggest failures are thought to be: The Partition of India which he described and justified as "a necessary evil" and which would lead to the bloody and deadly Partition riots; and the Sino-Indian War of 1962, though his wartime policy is said to have been influenced 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.

Freedom

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Gandhi's deep commitment and disciplined belief in non-violent civil disobedience as a way to oppose forms of oppression or injustice has inspired many subsequent political figures, including Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States,[34] Julius Nyerere of Tanzania,[35] Nelson Mandela[36] and Steve Biko[37] of South Africa, Lech Wałęsa of Poland[38][39] and Aung San Suu Kyi[40] of Myanmar.

Gandhi's early life work in South Africa between the years 1910 and 1915, for the improved rights of Indian residents living under the white minority South African government inspired the later work of the African National Congress (ANC). From the 1950s, the ANC organised 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 harsh tactics of the police to protest against the oppressive South African government. 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 government. 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 honoured 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 minister and a leader of the civil rights movement seeking the emancipation 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 organising peaceful resistance. The graphic imagery of black protesters being hounded by police, beaten and brutalised, evoked admiration for King and the protesters 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, precipitating the downfall of the Soviet Union.

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi was put 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. She was released in November 2010, when free elections were to be held.

"Without truth, nothing"

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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 hitting his wife when he was young,[41] 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 hustler. 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 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.

Gandhians

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There have been Muslim Gandhians, such as Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as the "Frontier Gandhi";[42][43][44] under the influence of Gandhi, he organised the Pathans of the Northwest Frontier as early as 1919 to support the independence movement.[45] Christian Gandhians include the Briton Horace Alexander[46] and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.[47] Jewish Gandhians include Gandhi's close associate Hermann Kallenbach. Atheist Gandhians include Jawaharlal Nehru. Bangladeshi writer, columnist Syed Abul Maksud is a notable Gandhian in Bangladesh.

Promotion of Gandhian ideas

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Many committees were formed to promote Gandhian ideas, one such committee was "Committee for the promotion of Gandhiji's teaching and his way of life" in 1957. In its meeting committee recommended to the Ministry of Education to prepare three books incorporating Gandhiji's contribution in important fields one each for primary, secondary and University stage. Ministry of Education was recommended by the committee to celebrate Gandhi week at school level etc. Committee worked hard for collection of work on Mahatma Gandhi and many journals have also been published to promote Gandhian ideas. One of the most well-known is Gandhi Marg, an English-language journal published since 1957 by the Gandhi Peace Foundation.[48]

Harold Dwight Lasswell, a political scientist and communications theorist, defined propaganda as the management of eclectic attitudes by manipulation of significant symbols. Based on this definition of Propaganda, Gandhi made use of significant symbols to drive his ideal of an independent Indian nation.[49]

His ideas, symbolized in propaganda, stated that India was a nation capable of economic self-sufficiency without the British, a unity transcending religion would make for a stronger nation, and that the most effective method of protest was through passive resistance, including non-violence and the principle of satyagraha. In the "Quit India" speeches, Gandhi says "the proposal for the withdrawal of British power is to enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture. It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and velour, so long as we are not free." On his ideas towards a unified India he said: "Thousands of Mussalmans have told me, that if Hindu-Muslim question was to be solved satisfactorily, it must be done in my lifetime. I should feel flattered at this; but how can I agree to proposal which does not appeal to my reason? Hindu-Muslim unity is not a new thing. Millions of Hindus and Mussalmans have sought after it. I consciously strove for its achievement from my boyhood. While at school, I made it a point to cultivate the friendship of Muslims and Parsi co-students. I believed even at that tender age that the Hindus in India, if they wished to live in peace and amity with the other communities, should assiduously cultivate the virtue of neighbourliness. It did not matter, I felt, if I made no special effort to cultivate the friendship with Hindus, but I must make friends with at least a few Mussalmans. In India too I continued my efforts and left no stone unturned to achieve that unity. It was my life-long aspiration for it that made me offer my fullest co-operation to the Mussalmans in the Khilafat movement. Muslims throughout the country accepted me as their true friend."[50] Gandhi's belief in the effectiveness of passive, non-violent resistance has been quoted as being the "belief that non-violence alone will lead men to do right under all circumstances."

These ideas were symbolized by Gandhi through the use of significant symbols, an important proponent in the acceptance of the ideals he expounded in his speeches and movements. On 3 November 1930, Gandhi gave a speech before the Dandi March which possibly could have been one of Gandhi's last speeches, in which the significant symbol of the march itself demonstrated the exclusively nonviolent struggle to empower a self-sufficient India. Beginning in Ahmedabad and concluding in Dandi, Gujarat, the march saw Gandhi and his supporters directly disobey the Rowlatt Act which imposed taxes on salt production and enforced the colonial monopoly on the salt market.[51]

The Khadi movement, which formed part of the larger swadeshi movement, employed the symbol of burning British-made cloth imports in order to manipulate attitudes towards boycotting British goods and rejecting Western culture and urging the return to ancient, precolonial Indian culture. Gandhi obtained a wheel and engaged his disciples in spinning their own cloth called Khadi; this commitment to hand spinning was an essential element to Gandhi's philosophy and politics.[52]

On 1 December 1948, Gandhi dictated his speech on the eve of the last fast. Using the fast as a form of significant symbolism, he justifies it as "a fast which a votary of non-violence sometimes feels impelled to undertake by way of protest against some wrong done by society, and this he does when as a votary of Ahimsa has no other remedy left. Such an occasion has come my way." This fast was conducted in line with his idea of a nation's communities and religions brought together. Gandhi's fast was only to end when he was satisfied with the reunion of hearts of all the communities brought about without any outside pressure, but from an awakened sense of duty.[53]

Criticism and controversy

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Gandhi's rigid ahimsa implies pacifism, and is thus a source of criticism from across the political spectrum.

Concept of partition

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As a rule, Gandhi was opposed to the concept of partition as it contradicted his vision of religious unity.[54] Of the partition of India to create Pakistan, he wrote in Harijan on 6 October 1946:

[The demand for Pakistan] as put forth by the Muslim League is un-Islamic and I have not hesitated to call it sinful. Islam stands for unity and the brotherhood of mankind, not for disrupting the oneness of the human family. Therefore, those who want to divide India into possibly warring groups are enemies alike of India and Islam. They may cut me into pieces but they cannot make me subscribe to something which I consider to be wrong [...] we must not cease to aspire, in spite of [the] wild talk, to befriend all Muslims and hold them fast as prisoners of our love.[55]

However, as Homer Jack notes of Gandhi's long correspondence with Jinnah on the topic of Pakistan: "Although Gandhi was personally opposed to the partition of India, he proposed an agreement [...] which provided that the Congress and the Muslim League would cooperate to attain independence under a provisional government, after which the question of partition would be decided by a plebiscite in the districts having a Muslim majority."[56]

These dual positions on the topic of the partition of India opened Gandhi up to criticism from both Hindus and Muslims. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his contemporary fellow-travelers condemned Gandhi for undermining Muslim political rights. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his allies condemned Gandhi, accusing him of politically appeasing Muslims while turning a blind eye to their atrocities against Hindus, and for allowing the creation of Pakistan (despite having publicly declared that "before partitioning India, my body will have to be cut into two pieces"[57]).

His refusal to protest against the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Udham Singh and Rajguru by the colonial government was a source of condemnation and intense anger for many Indians.[58] Economists, such as Jagdish Bhagwati, have criticized Gandhi's ideas of swadeshi.

Of this criticism, Gandhi stated, "There was a time when people listened to me because I showed them how to give fight to the British without arms when they had no arms [...] but today I am told that my non-violence can be of no avail against the Hindu-Moslem riots and, therefore, people should arm themselves for self-defense."[59]

See also

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Further reading

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  • Swarup, Ram (1955). Gandhism and communism: Principles and technique. New Delhi: J. Prakashan.

Notes

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  1. ^ Nicholas F. Gier (2004). The Virtue of Nonviolence: From Gautama to Gandhi. SUNY Press. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-7914-5949-2.
  2. ^ Gwilym Beckerlegge, World religions reader, 2001
  3. ^ Guha, Ramachandra (2013). Gandhi before India. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-9-351-18322-8.
  4. ^ Gandhi, MK (26 October 1907). Indian Opinion: 438.
  5. ^ Guha, Ramachandra (2012). Gandhi before India. Allen Lane.
  6. ^ A. A. Macdonell, Sanskrit English Dictionary, Asian Educational Services, ISBN 978-8120617797, page 330-331
  7. ^ J. Wentzel Vrede van Huyssteen et al. (2003), Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, Thomson Gale, ISBN 0-02-865704-7, page 405
  8. ^ KN Tiwari (1998), Classical Indian Ethical Thought, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120816077, page 87
  9. ^ Nonviolence By Senthil Ram, Ralph Summy, 2007
  10. ^ page 388, The collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, by Gandhi (Mahatma), India. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Publications Division
  11. ^ Trustworthiness by Bruce Glassman – Juvenile Nonfiction – 2008
  12. ^ Trustworthiness, by Bruce Glassman – Juvenile Nonfiction – 2008
  13. ^ a b Parel, Anthony (2011). "Gandhi and the State". In Judith Brown; Anthony Parel (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 154–170. ISBN 978-0-521-11670-1.
  14. ^ Hardiman, David (2011). "Gandhi's Global Legacy". In Judith Brown; Anthony Parel (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 239–254. ISBN 978-0-521-11670-1.
  15. ^ a b Gandhi, Mohandas (1965). The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Vol. 14. Ahmedabad: The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. pp. 504–505.
  16. ^ Gandhi, Mohandas (1965). The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Vol. 23. Ahmedabad: The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. pp. 468–469.
  17. ^ Chatterjee, Margaret (1983). Gandhi's Religious Thought. London: The Macmillan Press, LTD. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-349-05367-4.
  18. ^ Clooney, Francis X. (2005). Hindu Wisdom for All God's Children. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 51. ISBN 1-59752-068-3.
  19. ^ Robb, Peter; Taylor, David (1978). Rule, Protest, Identity: Aspects of Modern South Asia. Curzon Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0391008663.
  20. ^ Gandhi, Mohandas (2019). Andrews, C.F. (ed.). Mahatma Gandhi at Work: His Own Story Continued. Routledge.
  21. ^ Gandhi, Mahatma (1994) [1956]. Homer, Jack A. (ed.). The Gandhi reader : a source book of his life and writings (Rev ed.). New York: Grove Press. pp. 8. ISBN 0802131611. OCLC 32833421.
  22. ^ Thoothi, N.A. (1938). The Vaishnavas of Gujarat: Being a study of methods of investigation of social phenomena. Calcutta: Longmans, Green, and Co, LTD. p. 279.
  23. ^ The Gandhi Reader
  24. ^ Jack, Homer. Gandhi Reader, p.344
  25. ^ Jack, Homer. Gandhi Reader, pp.345–6
  26. ^ Mia Mahmudur Rahim; Sanjaya Kuruppu (2016). "Corporate Governance in India: The Potential for Ghandism". In Ngwu, Franklin; Onyeka, Osuji; Frank, Stephen (eds.). Corporate Governance in Developing and Emerging Markets. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315666020. ISBN 9781315666020.
  27. ^ a b Encyclopaedia of Indian philosophy by Vraj Kumar Pandey – History – 2007
  28. ^ M. K. Gandhi, All Men Are Brothers: Life and Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as told in his own words, Paris, UNESCO 1958, p 60.
  29. ^ Mahatma Gandhi and comparative religion – Page 54, by K.L. Seshagiri Rao – Biography & Autobiography – 1990
  30. ^ A Man Called Bapu, Subhadra Sen Gupta, Pratham Books, 2008. P.5
  31. ^ Singh, Dr Mahesh Kumar (22 January 2022). The Humanistic Philosophy of Gandhi. K.K. Publications. p. 7.
  32. ^ Gandhi, Rajmohan (1997). Rajaji, A life. Penguin India.
  33. ^ Gandhi, Mohandas (13 July 1946). "The Means". Harijan.
  34. ^ "Gandhi, Mohandas K. | The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute". kinginstitute.stanford.edu. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  35. ^ Smith, William Edgett (1973). Nyerere of Tanzania. London: Victor Gollanz. p. 59. ISBN 9780575015104.
  36. ^ "Nelson Mandela's Umbilical Bond with Mahatma Gandhi". Diplomatist. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  37. ^ "Steven Bantu Biko | AFR 110: Intro to Contemporary Africa". sites.psu.edu. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  38. ^ "Mahatma Gandhi guided my conscience during Solidarity movement: Lech Walesa". India Today. 31 March 1994. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  39. ^ Nanda, B. R. (21 October 2004), "Gandhi and Non-violence", In Search of Gandhi, Oxford University Press, pp. 247–253, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195672039.003.0028, ISBN 978-0-19-567203-9, retrieved 16 March 2024
  40. ^ "Aung San Suu Kyi: In Gandhi's Footsteps - Articles : On and By Gandhi". www.mkgandhi.org. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  41. ^ Mohatma Gandhi, (1957) An autobiography: The story of my experiments with truth (M. H. Desai Trans.). Beacon Press. pp. 24–25
  42. ^ "Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan". kp.gov.pk.
  43. ^ Nanda, B. R. (21 October 2004). "Twelve Abdul Ghaffar Khan: the 'Frontier Gandhi'". In Search of Gandhi: Essays and Reflections. Oxford University Press. pp. 107–123. ISBN 978-0-19-908141-7.
  44. ^ "6g. Abdul Ghaffar Khan: the Frontier Gandhi". contensis.uwaterloo.ca. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  45. ^ Ronald M. McCarthy and Gene Sharp, Nonviolent action: a research guide (1997) p. 317
  46. ^ Horace Alexander, Consider India: An Essay in Values (London: Asia, 1961), p. 73
  47. ^ Mary Elizabeth King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr: the power of nonviolent action (UNESCO Publishing, 1999), p. 183
  48. ^ Ananda M. Pandiri, A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography on Mahatma Gandhi:Biographies, Works by Gandhi, and Bibliographical Sources Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995 ISBN 0313253374 (p. 349).
  49. ^ Barlow, David M., and Brett Mills. "Harold D. Lasswell." Reading media theory: thinkers, approaches and contexts. Second Edition ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2012. 103. Print.
  50. ^ Bandopadhaya, Sailesh Kumar. "The "Quit India" Resolution." My non-violence. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Pub. House, 1960. 183-205. Print.
  51. ^ Gandhi, M. K., and Mahadev Desai. "On The Eve Of Historic Dandi March." The selected works of Mahatma Gandhi. Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan Publ. House, 1968. 28-30. Print.
  52. ^ Brown, TM; Fee, E (2008). "Spinning for India's independence". Am J Public Health. 98 (1): 39. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.120139. PMC 2156064. PMID 18048775.
  53. ^ "Speech on the Eve of the Last Fast." Famous Speeches by Mahatma Gandhi. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 March 2014. <http://www.mkgandhi.org/speeches/evelast.htm
  54. ^ reprinted in The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas., Louis Fischer, ed., 2002 (reprint edition) pp. 106–108.
  55. ^ reprinted in The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas.Louis Fischer, ed., 2002 (reprint edition) pp. 308–9.
  56. ^ Jack, Homer. The Gandhi Reader, p. 418.
  57. ^ "The life and death of Mahatma Gandhi", on BBC News [1], see section "Independence and partition."
  58. ^ Mahatma Gandhi on Bhagat Singh.Archived 9 December 2012 at archive.today.
  59. ^ reprinted in The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas., Louis Fischer, ed., 2002 (reprint edition) p. 311.
  • Gandhi today: a report on Mahatma Gandhi's successors, by Mark Shepard. Published by Shepard Publications, 1987. ISBN 0-938497-04-9. Excerpts

References

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