The defining features of Gandhian nonviolence. / Las características representativas de la no violencia Gandhiana. (original) (raw)
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GANDHI’S PHILOSOPHY OF NON-VIOLENCE: A CRITIQUE
The present paper discusses the philosophy of ‘nonviolence’ (ahimsa) of Mahatma Gandhi, which he devised as a weapon to fight the brute forces of violence and hatred, hailing it as the only way to peace. Gandhi based his philosophy of nonviolence on the principle of love for all and hatred for none. He thought violence as an act caused to a person directly or indirectly, denying him his legitimate rights in the society by force, injury or deception. Gandhi’s nonviolence means avoiding violent means to achieve one’s end, howsoever, lofty it might be, as he firmly believed that the use of violence, even if in the name of achieving a justifiable end was not good, as it would bring more violence. He firmly adhered to the philosophy of Gita that preaches to follow the rightful path, remaining oblivious of its outcome. Gandhi used nonviolence in both his personal and political life and used it first in South Africa effectively and back home he applied it in India against the British with far more astounding success, as it proved supremely useful and efficacious in liberating the country from the British servitude. However, he never tried to use it as a political tactic to embarrass the opponent or to take undue
Gandhi's Philosophy of Nonviolence: Essential Selections
2021
A concise open-access teaching resource featuring essential selections from Gandhi on the philosophy of nonviolence. The book includes: a preface, brief explanatory notes, supplementary boxes containing related philosophical material, images and videos, an appendix on post-Gandhian nonviolence, questions for reflection/discussion, and suggestions for further study.
The Normative Ethics of Gandhian Nonviolence
2013
This thesis examines Mahatma Gandhi's ethical views on nonviolence from the perspective of contemporary philosophical ethics. Gandhian nonviolence is situated in the field of contemporary ethics by using the concepts and terminology from Shelly Kagan's work, Normative Ethics. Three questions are asked that classify and clarify Gandhian nonviolence. First, is nonviolence primarily instrumentally or intrinsically significant? This question is closely tied to the second, does Gandhian nonviolence belong to which type of ethical theory, consequentialism or deontology? And third, is nonviolence an absolutist constraint or a high threshold that allows for exceptions? Gandhi views nonviolence as both instrumentally and intrinsically valuable; however, of the two, Gandhi considers nonviolence to be primarily intrinsically significant. As such, Gandhian nonviolence is properly considered a deontological constraint. Even though he admits that nonviolence is often an impossible mandate, Gandhi considers the moral law of nonviolence to be absolute. This work concludes that Gandhian nonviolence should properly be considered as an absolutist deontological principle. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)
MAHATMA GANDHI’S PHILOSOPHY ON NON-VIOLENCE
This paper demonstrates that the political theory of Mahatma Gandhi provides us a novel way to understand and arbitrate the conflict among moral projects. Gandhi offers us a vision of political action that insists on the viability of the search for truth and the implicit possibility of adjudicating among competing claims to truth. His vision also presents a more complex and realistic understanding, than some other contemporary pluralists, of political philosophy and of political life itself. In an increasingly multicultural world, political theory is presented with perhaps it’s most vigorous challenge yet. As radically different moral projects confront one another, the problem of competing claims of truth arising from particular views of the human good remains crucial for political philosophy and political action. Recent events have demonstrated that the problem is far from being solved and that its implications are more far-reaching than the domestic politics of industrialized nations. As the problem of violence has also become coterminous with issues of pluralism, many have advocated the banishing of truth claims from politics altogether. Political theorists have struggled to confront this problem through a variety of conceptual lenses. Debates pertaining to the politics of multiculturalism, tolerance, or recognition have all been concerned with the question of pluralism as one of the most urgent facts of political life, in need of both theoretical and practical illumination.
Gandhian Concept of Freedom and Non-Violence and Its Viability in Today’s Society
IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 2013
Mahatma Gandhi was a difficult person, quite adamant and stubborn with his principle of nonviolence but eventually it was non-violent resistant that won freedom for us, the Indians with all dignity, respect and awe. Gandhian concept of freedom is necessary more than anything else in the present day conflict torn world; a world where man is pitted against man, nation against nation and religion against religion. If we strive for freedom, then Gandhian principles are the prerequisite which will lead us to that freedom. Freedom is the sum total of self-respect, self-restraint and maturity as preached by Gandhi and which can alone be attained through non-violence. History bears evidence where freedom was won by waging war at the expense of lives; however history has also shown freedom or 'swaraj' can be achieved through Gandhian non-violence. This non-violent way of life may bring an end to internal struggle or disputes in several parts of the world which is being frequently witnessed today. With this aim in view, our present paper is an attempt to analyse Gandhian concept of freedom and non-violence to indicate its potential contribution to the present day society.
Gandhian non-violence and self-defense: Clarifications and implications [English version]
Vega González, N. (2024). 'No-violencia gandhiana y defensa personal: Aclaraciones e implicaciones'. En: Martínez-Otero Pérez, V.; Cayón Peña, J. (2024). 'Violencia y Sociedad' (pp. 199-213). Dykinson, S.L., 2024, 2024
When studying Gandhian non-violence in a radical way, we find the need to clarify its relationship and implications towards self-defense. We identify that its foundations begins in a love opposed to anger and fear; and that said love is based on forgiveness. The authenticity of love is found in the fact that it is offered unconditionally to aggressor; while that of forgiveness is found in the capacity for punishment. The ideal practitioner of his non-violence will willingly take on the aggression until their death. Aware of the impracticability of such an extreme, Gandhi contemplated within his doctrine the use of violence for self-defense as an alternative to martyrdom. Keywords: Non-violence, violence studies, self-defense, buddhism, pacifism
NON-VIOLENT TEACHINGS OF GANDHI
isara solutions, 2020
We find that much development and great achievements have been made in science and technology for human upliftment . These are external developments, but we have no internal or psychological development lack of which is the cause of violence . Many humanist thinkers and philosophers have contributed to build up a peaceful and perfect society. But there is a little impact of their message on human civilization . But with the help of modern science and technology , some political and social leaders of the world are performing inhuman actions day by day generating disintegration, violence, terrorism, war at national, international , religious, social and political levels .
Political and social movements in South Africa, the United States of America, Germany, Myanmar, India, and elsewhere, have drawn inspiration from the non-violent political techniques advocated by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi during his leadership of the anti-colonial struggle for Indian freedom from British colonial rule. This course charts a global history of Gandhi's thought about non-violence and its expression in civil disobedience and resistance movements both in India and the world. Organized in three modules, the first situates Gandhi through consideration of the diverse sources of his own historical and ideological formation; the second examines the historical contexts and practices through which non-violence acquired meaning for him and considers important critiques; the third explores the various afterlives of Gandhian politics in movements throughout the world. We will examine autobiography and biography, Gandhi's collected works, various types of primary source, political, social, and intellectual history, and audiovisual materials. In addition to widely disseminated narratives of Gandhi as a symbol of non-violence, the course will closely attend to the deep contradictions concerning race, caste, gender, and class that characterized his thought and action. By unsettling conventional accounts of his significance, we will grapple with the problem of how to make sense of his troubled legacy.
Profound Revolution: Towards an Integrated Understanding of Nonviolence
This dissertation studies nonviolence in the context of Humanistic Studies, a multi-disciplinary academic field that criticallly explores issues of (existential) meaning and humanization; the personal and social aspects of 'good living'. From this background this study focusses on contemporary nonviolence, using this term not only to point to the absence of violence, but to that which can take its place. Nonviolence is thus understood as a substantive method to create societal and interpersonal change, and even as a paradigm. The aim of the study is twofold. Firstly to descern if it is possible to understand nonviolence a concept independent from specific cultural, religious or practical context. Secondly to see if from such an independent notion it is possible to develop a framework for analysis and practice. The Gandhian understanding of nonviolence is the startingpoint ot this study. However, many developments in nonviolence theory and practice have taken place after Gandhi. This dissertation studies the way Gandhian concepts have caried over, and are changed and expanded by other thinkers and practitioners and what remains the same. From this search it is concluded that five basic elements form the core of contemporary nonviolence: satya (truthseeking), ahimsa (non-harming), tapasya (self-suffering), sarvodaya (the welfare of all) and swadeshi/swaraj (relational autonomy). Together they point to a specific way of wielding power called integrative power, which lies at the heart of nonviolence.
Gandhian Nonviolence as a Response to Epistemological Violence
In an important but often overlooked 1988 paper, Vandana Shiva described the impact of dominant forms of reductionist models of scientific knowledge as ‘epistemological violence’. The impact of the application of such approaches as the basis of social change, particularly in the case of development programmes, was highlighted as socially divisive and culturally destructive. In the intervening years, the impact of global capitalism and the development of more novel forms of social and cultural imperialism have only exacerbated the condition that Shiva identified. Whilst Gandhian methods of nonviolence are comfortably aligned with processes of reconciliation and harmonisation in the aims of reducing conflict, it is all too easily overlooked that they derive from a process designed to confront and to remove imperial rule, and to challenge the underpinning conceptualisation which divides the world into the ruler and the potential subject. In the context of the hegemony of contemporary global capital, therefore, it is important to reinterpret the significance of Gandhian nonviolence as a means by which the reductionist epistemology of global capital, whereby ultimate value and meaning are reduced to economic units, can be also be challenged and confronted. A further impact of this utilitarian arbitration of values is that it reshapes other consideration of the good life except insofar as it conforms to the dominant rationality. This paper, therefore looks towards the development of Gandhian nonviolence not simply as technique or means (although these are by no means unimportant), but as an emancipatory praxis - a critical process of emancipation. Reductionist epistemologies, whether scientific, political or economic imply conditions of subordination, where dominant knowledges are able to reproduce themselves by denying the validity of alternative experience, explanation and valuation. Nonviolence as theory and practice is hereby read as a transformative framework that refutes the subordination of any social ‘other’.