The Essence Of Non-violence

The Essence of Non-Violence

Today the world will mark its first ‘International Day of Non-Violence’, as declared in the UN General Assembly resolution earlier this year, to honor the greatest champion of non-violence the world has known: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi, as he is widely known, was born this day 138 years ago, in India, where his birthday is celebrated every year as a national holiday, and where he will forever be revered as the ‘Father of The Nation’. Even though he was a prolific writer, writing letters to newspapers and individuals practically every day to clarify some point or the other, his contemporaries, even those closest to him, found it difficult to understand him fully. While others around him would be desperate to find a way to obtain freedom from the British rule, he would be more interested in ensuring freedom from poverty for the peasants. He was a lawyer educated in Britain, and had plenty of job offers from wealthy Indians, who were willing to pay him whatever salary he could wish for. Yet, Gandhi, rejecting all such offers, spent hours trying to spin cotton into yarn, and advocated spinning as a means to alleviating the sufferings of the millions of unemployed Indians living in extreme poverty. His friends could not understand why he could not take up a part-time job to earn good money and then use that money as he wished to help the poor. He wanted to teach the poor to be self-reliant. Instead of depending on charity, he wanted the masses to earn their own money and thus be independent financially. Most incomprehensible of all was his teachings on non-violence. He would say that his life was not worth living if he could not preach non-violence. He was ready to give his life for many causes, but there was no cause for which he was willing to take a life. Not only did non-violence mean not killing, but it also meant not offending, and not harboring unkind thoughts in connection with our opponents, not even considering them as ‘enemies’, even though they may consider themselves to be our enemies and may therefore deal with us unkindly. Gandhi tried to show us the futility of fighting violence with more violence. Depending on which side you look from, a suicide-bomber may appear a terrorist or a martyr. Whether the senseless violence and destruction was perpetrated in the name of Democracy or Tyranny, it would make no difference to the orphans, widows, and other victims of such violence. An eye for an eye would render the whole world blind, taught Gandhi. Non-violence meant that we must not return a blow for a blow. This much was understandable. But Gandhi went further and taught that we must not resent the action of the so-called ‘enemy’ who considers it necessary to torment us. A true follower of nonviolence should not harbor any thoughts of revenge. He cannot, in retaliation, wish for

some harm to visit his attacker. This was as difficult to understand, as it was to put into practice. Gandhi repeatedly said that it needed great courage to practice non-violence. But people could not understand how passive submission to torture could be viewed as courageous. Gandhi’s path of non-violence was paved with Truth, Love, and Fearlessness. He taught that to have the courage to be non-violent, we first needed to conquer our own fears. One needed courage to speak the truth, to stand up for what one believed in, and to face criticisms. In this connection, we are reminded of the frail and pretty Aung Sang Suu Kyi of Myanmar, who, in this present-day turbulence, is quietly following the principles taught by Gandhi. In her famous 'Freedom from Fear' speech of 1990, she proposed that it was not ‘power’ but ‘fear’ that corrupted men. Those who had power, feared losing it, and those who were powerless feared the scourge of those in power. “The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit…” she said. “ People who would build a nation in which strong democratic institutions are firmly established… must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.” Suu Kyi has suffered silently for many years. She has been under house arrest, she missed being with her husband in his last moments, and she continues to be denied the company of her children. She could have avoided all these by just agreeing to leave her country and going on permanent exile. But her frailty is merely a cover for her immense inner strength. She has sacrificed her comforts to stand by her people as they try to liberate themselves from tyranny. She exemplifies the courage that is needed to be non-violent. Non-violence is not merely a virtue of negatives. It involves as much of doing good, as much as the refusal to do harm. It involves supreme kindness and supreme self-sacrifice. Gandhi was not afraid to put his principles of non-violence into practice. Although he was opposed to the idea of the British ruling India, his attitude towards the Englishmen was of utter friendliness and respect. He would argue his case with them, he would disagree with them, he would not cooperate with them; but he would never hate them. He believed that if you expressed your love truly and in all sincerity towards your so-called enemy, then your gesture is bound to move your opponent’s conscience, and he would want to return that love to you. The essence of non-violence lies in the concept of suffering injury without retaliation. Not because you are week, or incapable, but because you do not harbor any desire for retaliation. Gandhi believed that heroic endurance, borne meekly and silently, would profoundly move the human heart. The pain of such suffering is not in vain. As the poet William Blake wrote, a tear is an intellectual thing, a sigh is the sword of the angel King; and the bitter groan of a martyr’s woe is an arrow from the Almighty’s bow.