Gandhian Approach to Concept of Peace and Non-Violence

Dr. Sabyasachi Sarangi1

Abstract
This paper has two aspects, one is peace and another is Non-Violence (Ahimsa). Before
discussion of the Gandhian approach to peace and Non-Violence it needs to define the term
peace and Non-Violence first. But it is not an easy task to define the term peace and Non-
Violence, it needs philosophical analysis. Hence, at the outset it shall be tried to define the term
peace and thereafter Gandhian notion of Non-Violence. Peace does not mean just an absence of
violence, dissension of war; rather Peace is a commitment to refrain someone from any kind of
harm and violence and at the same time leads, to live in perfect tranquility of mind as well as the
balance of the body, mind and the soul of an individual. The word ‘Non-Violence' is a
translation of the Sanskrit term ‘Ahimsa’. which means ‘the largest love, the greatest charity’.
Gandhian concept of Peace and Non-Violence elaborately discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Gandhi, Peace, Ahimsa, Truth, Philosophy, Challenges

Introduction:
In today’s world violence and war tactics are the biggest challenge to save people. Many
people of the world stand on a queue for peace to survive the war. Promises shall be made that
no country can exploit any other; no nation shall produce mass-killings arms. They think that
their idea can be made by making goodwill and peace-loving efforts the world into peace in
heaven. Mahatma Gandhi was the Pioneer of Non-Violence and a great supporter of Peace. He
gave great importance to the concept of Peace and Non-Violence. Truth or Satya, Ahimsa or
Non-Violence are foundation of Gandhi’s philosophy. The word “Non-violence” is a translation
of the Sanskrit term “Ahimsa”. He stated that in its positive form, ‟Ahimsa” means “The largest
love, the greatest charity”. According to him Peace is a commitment to refrain someone from any
kind of harm and violence and at the same time leads to live in perfect tranquility of mind as well
as the balance of the body, mind and the soul of an individual. Happiness and Peace are co-
terminus. Basically, though, happiness is a mental state and peace is a state of the society, a
multi-dimensional concept with wider connotations. Peace thus incorporates happiness as well.

Objectives of the Paper:

This paper tries to focus the relation between Peace and Non-Violence and how Gandhi
was influenced by these two concepts. According to Gandhi, Peace is a broad concept with
several dimensions- social-scientific, ethical, political, cultural, etc. It means freedom from strife,
1
Assistant Professor, Dept of Prakrit and Sanskrit, Jain Vishva-Bharati Institute, Ladnun
controversy or agitation, freedom from war, tranquility, concord, mental calm and serenity of
mind. Peace is positive and depends on mutual trust, a strong sense of unity of mankind,
promotion of equality and common welfare. According to Gandhi, ahimsa is the greatest force
available to humankind. Though the concept of non-violence was not originated by Gandhi, he
was the first person to apply it for a political purpose. Gandhi’s greatest contribution, therefore,
is the use of non-violence into a successful technique for direct mass action. The concept of non-
violence was not a new one. Before the teachings of Gandhi, the notion of ahimsa finds an
important place in holy scriptures, teachings of Gautama Buddha to Prophet Mohammad and
works of various philosophers. However, it was Gandhi who converted it into a social and
political technique and super humanitarian method of resolution to all type of crisis and
problems.

CONCEPT OF PEACE:
Peace is basically the absence of conflict, disturbance and disharmony in all spheres of
life. There are many controversies concerning the definition of peace. The problem is, of course,
that peace derives its meaning and qualities within a theory or framework. Christian, Hindu,
Islamic or Buddhist has seen peace differently as like pacifist or internationalist. Socialist, fascist
and libertarian have different approaches of peace, as do power or idealistic theorists of
international relations. Peace has diverse meanings, it is not different from concepts such as
justice, freedom, equality, power, conflict, class etc., However, Gandhiji’s approach to peace
applies some special techniques that basically changed the definition of peace. He never defined
the term peace literally rather he realized its inner import and has tried to activate it in global
way for common benefits without any sectarian boundary; which is a practical approach. Many
nations have adopted his technique of peace and benefitted largely. Now this modern world has
realised the necessity for his technique of peace and many nations utilised it for building a
peaceful society and good individuals. In this way his notion of peace has transcended the
boundary and time. Gandhiji’s notion of peace can be defined two different aspects: On the one
hand it implies absence of violence i.e. negative aspect and the other side presence of positive
aspects like harmonious cooperative relationships with all. These two aspects are referred to as
negative (non-violence) and positive peace. Gandhiji did not directly use the term peace rather
for peace, he used the term ahimsa which has a strength to overpower the mind of a man on
adversary and evil thoughts. Their soul force will preponderate over the sensual evil forces.
Gandhi’s technique of peace is basically a soul force and free from any kind of selfish nature.
This soul force is a zeal, commitment and quest for truth. This truth can be attained from various
modes, like social, political, economical, collective and individual too. His concept of society is
a just a society, where equal distribution of wealth and opportunities are to be extended towards
all in humanistic nature. In political concern it is spiritually altruistic, democratic and people’s
welfare politics. There is no place of hypocrisy, inequality and disharmony in his democratic
notion. Gandhiji connected political and economic pursuits with spirituality and deviated
himself from the age old tradition of peace or liberation. He has tried to achieve peace and
liberation by associating with the worldly affairs and not through the renunciation of the world.
He is a Satyagrahi and according to him, a Satyagrahi must be conscious for truth and never be
deviated from Truth. It is a rigorous practice and love for truth. In his eyes Satyagraha is the
precondition of peace. Similarly, his notion of religion is a way of life and a quest for truth so
that someone may reach in the state of peace, where an individual will exercise his freedom and
simultaneously he must have a sense of tolerance and respect for others, it will help to establish a
just and peaceful society and individuals. It is a force that can be used by individuals as well as
communities. This technique of peace may be used both in political and domestic levels. Peace
in political level needs just ruler who has strong moral sense and his activities will be completely
free from all kinds of exploitation, oppression and injustices of the people. Anyone can join his
peace movement irrespective of caste and genders. According to Gandhiji Satyagraha is an
appeal to change the heart of the wrong doer to achieve peace. In fact, Satyagraha is based on the
presupposition of rectification to the wrong doer, so that their heart can be changed. Distrust or
hatred has no place in his peace movement, There must be a trust and love in the goodness of the
opponent. not apathy but love can change the mind of wrong doer.
Having political power is therefore just the first step towards peace. We all have to accept
the responsibility to change the situation to remove all kind of exploitations. We have a
responsibility to cultivate some of the principles by which Gandhiji practiced and lived. We have
to begin to share, care and ensure practices of Gandhiji. We must ensure the people’s security
and sarvodaya in the society. Thus, Gandhiji laid much more emphasis for the progress of village
panchayet system. In addition to political oppression, we have seen economic, intellectual,
religious, environmental, and gender oppression and exploitation in South Africa. When we talk
about peace, we cannot view the indiscriminate killings and destruction of property in isolation
from the poverty, illiteracy, religious intolerance, environmental threats and gender oppression
faced by our people in our daily lives. But what we the philosophers will do? Will we remain
aloof or keep mum or indifferent? Certainly not, because we cannot elude our responsibility and
moral obligations in this regard. Actually, philosophers are ambassador of peace in the world.
Philosophers first identifies problem and tries for logical solution. It is clear that only the change
of political power in itself will not be suffice to achieve peace. So, how can we achieve peace in
our country? How can we help to build a peace conscious society, where we think that Gandhiji
has considered the following are the essential preconditions for peace:
a) People in power whether political, economic, religious, civic or administrative needs to
develop a holistic view of peace. If we want a better country for our posterior generations then
we must be ensuring that a holistic view is adopted and a comprehensive approach is being used
in addressing the issue of peace.
b) We also have a responsibility to ensure that the community understands and approves this
approach.
c) We cannot expect a new government to bring change on its own. We should take the
responsibility bring changes by seek assistance of the state.
d) To build a equitable society through community program must be developed climate of love,
caring, sharing and communal consciousness must be developed.
e) We need to build a culture of non-violence among our children and youth, through actively
ensuring that we (and they) do not support war toys or violent games, media, books, stories, etc.,
but instead promote a culture of resistance to injustice. We need to inculcate a communal
responsibility among all our people.
f) We need to create a culture of work, and recognize the dignity of work, so that we not to meet
our own needs but also of the whole community. Examples of extreme hindrance of peace are
war, systematic repression, sexual and domestic violence, envy and jealousy, totalitarianism and
genocide. In conflict both the parties want to win but that often is not possible or does not
resolve the conflict completely and permanently.
g) Gandhiji’s notion of peace is deep rooted with civic virtues and liberalism of courage. His
ethics has own spiritual cast, hence he disparaged conventional political ideas that ‘ends justifies
the means’.
h) Peace cannot be achieved if religious ethics and cardinal virtues are not to practiced. For this
unity of the major religious groups are necessary. In Indian aspect basically the unity between
the Hindus and the Muslims are essential. Up-gradation of the sense of toleration is more vital,
According to gandhiji there is no religion which may talk absolute truth and for that we need
inter-religious dialogue. His notion of Truth is highly relevant to establish inter-religious and
inter-community peace. For this, Gandhiji unified pro-sanatana, non-sanatana and anti-sanatan’s
views. and has made the distinction between the society and the state.
According to Gandhi peace is an inevitable sign of prosperity. In his eyes, prosperity does
not mean only the progress and flourishing in economic level. His view of prosperity means all
round development of the nation and the individuals, like phenomenal level and spiritual level.
Prosperity in phenomenal level is related to political, economic, social levels prosperity, where
as spiritual prosperity is related to moral practice, individual up-liftmen, freedom, justice and
internationalism etc.
Gandhi said, “If we have no charity, and no tolerance, we shall never settle our
differences amicably and must therefore always submit to the arbitration of a third party.” Many
of today’s conflict management techniques and resolution process have a clear shadow of what
and how Gandhi has seen international issues in his times. A war-hunger nation has nothing in
this world while a starving nation needs every kind of help from the world. A nation endangering
peace in the world has no security for itself. Peace can never be achieved by one-dimensional
and unilateral talks or efforts. It has numerous facets of social, ethnical, religious and political
elements and copious ways to deal with them to bring and stabilize worsened situations under
control. The true character of a conflict must be identified and may perhaps be attributed any of
those hidden elements. Gandhi’s perception of bringing peace and resolving conflict had such a
diversified point of interest every time when he insisted on taking fast to bring hostile situation
under control. Whether there is a riot in the eastern Bengal or unrest in the north-western part of
India, peace lived in his soul consciously demanding him to take on fast even if he resides in
another corner of the country. Thus, peace becomes universal and eternal.
From the above discussion it is almost vivid to us that peace is the utmost need of our
present world’s prosperity. The present world is really in danger and the crisis of peace is
everywhere. Therefore, Gandhiji’s notion of peace is a real technique to achieve peace and
prosperity as well.

GANDHI’S TWIN-PRINCIPLES OF PEACE:

Truth and Non-violence in authoritarian societies, whether religious or political, where
votes of people do not count, where any opposition voice is silenced with bullets and
imprisonment, peace cannot be permanent. Having political power is, therefore, just the first step
towards peace. We have to accept the responsibility to change things. We have a responsibility to
cultivate some of the principles to look at sharing and ensuring that resources are distributed
equitably. We must ensure that people can see and feel the change and be able to identify a niche
for themselves in the world. In addition to political oppression, we have economic, intellectual,
religious, environmental, and gender oppression all over the world. When people talk about
peace, they cannot view the indiscriminate killings and destruction of property in isolation from
the poverty, illiteracy, religious intolerance, environmental threats and gender oppression faced
by the people.
Attainment of peace should be the ultimate goal of any youthful human emotions and
actions. Once their minds are at rest they can concentrate their energies for spreading the
message of peace.
To fulfill the aim of any society youth should know that social harmony is an index of
peace. They should strive peacefully to make their and other people’s social lives happy and
undisturbed. he also warned youngsters against misinterpreting religions. All the religions such
as Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, etc. preach peace and harmony so that
culture of peace in society can be inculcated.

TRUTH :
Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to
achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself. Gandhi
stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and
insecurities. Gandhiji summarized his trust as “God is Truth”. He later change his statement to
“Truth is God”. Thus, Satya (Truth) in Gandhi’s philosophy is “God”. Gandhiji was inspired by
truth which is reflected in his autobiography “My Experiments with Truth”. Satya Meva Jayate
was his slogan. Gandhi wanted every individual and society to practice truth at any cost. He
emphasized that all religions, philosophies, societies have unambiguously advocate truth.
According to him, truth is God and that truth must manifest itself in the thought, word and deeds.
He did accept that the path of truth will always be full of hardship, difficulties, sufferings, and
sacrifice. To tell the truth one must be courageous. Treading the path of truth is a continuous and
unending process, which has to be followed by every generation. Concepts and means of social
transformation and reformation preceded in Gandhi’s mind before they are applied as a mass
weapon to political ends against the British.
NON-VIOLENCE:
Non-violence and truth are the essence of Gandhian philosophy. Bringing change in the
violent exploitative society through non-violent persuasive methods has never been witnessed in
the history. Wrong belief has taken possession of us that non-violence is preeminently a weapon
for cowardice, but this is not the case. Gandhi conceived it as weapon of courageous and devoted
people to the particular cause. Gandhi was the first to apply non-violence in political field on a
massive scale. Gandhi derived the idea of non-violence from the principles ‘Ahimsa
Paramodharma' and ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’, which mean to earn complete freedom from
ill-will, anger and hatred, and to nurture love for all. The concept of non-violence and non-
resistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu,
Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and Christian contexts. He was quoted as saying ‘when I despair, I
remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won’. Gandhi was aware
that this level of non-violence required incredible faith and courage, which cannot be acquirable
by common man. He, therefore, advised that one need not keep to nonviolence, especially if it
were used as a cover for cowardice. Gandhi stated that non-violence is the rule of conduct for a
society, to live consistently with human dignity and to progress towards the attainment of peace.
He observed that nonviolence is not a value principle alone but a science based on the reality of
mankind, society and polity. In this line, Gandhi’s idea of ahimsa entails not just abstaining from
all violence but embracing an enemy with love. Ahimsa is the largest love and the greatest
charity that implies generally an act not only of not-killing but also abstaining from causing any
pain or harm to another living being either by thought, word or deed. To practice ahimsa, one
requires the qualities of deliberate self-suffering intended to awaken and convert the soul of the
enemy and a harmless mind, mouth and hand; its opposite, ‘himsa’, means causing injury and
harm to others and it needs no reference or discussion.
CONCLUSION:
To concluded it can be said that both Peace and Non-Violence are closely interrelated.
They are the two sides of a s coin. A critical account of the Gandhian concept of Non-Violence
shows that Gandhi was not aware of the deep rooted aggressive instinct in man. Contemporary
psychologist have pointed out that this instinct plays a major role in the human mental life.
Gandhi did not play sufficient attention to it. His account of Non-Violence seems to be more
dependent on his reading of religious texts than on psycho-social considerations. This is a major
critical point that may be raised against the Gandhian conception of Non-Violence. If Non-
Violence is the expression of the life-instinct within man then violence is the expression of the
death-instinct.

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