On the blessful day of 15 august 1947 when the whole of india was
celebrating the arrival of long wished independence ,mk Gandhi who was referred
to as father of nation by subhas Chandra bose and respected as leader of masses
was absent from those historic celebrations.he was there in the streets of
noakhali of Bengal dampening the flares of communal violence.but its now quite
imperative to see whether the message of non violence given to world by this
great leader through his deeds has really worked wonders or has it been just
ignored for the sake of greed and power?
Non
violence should not be taken as absence
of violence only.its the faith in oneself that he or she can bear up the violence
impounded by oppressors and even after the worst oppression will raise no hand
on the oppressor.whole article of non violence lies on the very basis that
‘hate the sin love the sinner’.mk Gandhi had given this message during the
Indian struggle of independence when the all known methods whether be of
petitions or of individual heroic actions had failed to dislodge the
colonialists.
The messae he had given,have become today more important than ever.just
a cursory look at world affairs can put things in true perspective.whether be
it Iraq or Syria or Ukraine or hongkong ,violence is not only practical but its
combined with state policy and religious teachings.result is a disastrous
outcome and its wrongness gets testified when world community gets divided
while taking actions on such beastly acts of oppression.
It
needs to be seen that how non violence as voiced by mk Gandhi can be helpful in
various facets of human life and what are the problems coming in the way of
pursuance of this noble idea along with what can be done for making this
article of faith a reality for not only who have faith in it but those who
really need it?
Concept of non violence gets its
synergy in political sphere when that particular political entity absorbs
the notions of responsible
democracy,good governance and freedom of expression.its because such a
political system in itself becomes the grievance redressal machinery and
governance taking into account the needs of even the last one in the row
results is creation of atmosphere of confidence among the minds of
minorities.contemporary world shows it in two opposite strands for example
Iraq’’s political system have not been careful of the aspirations and needs of
sunnni tribesmen resulting in islamic state exploiting those emotions and on
the other hand recently held successful Tunisian elections where a secular
party had won over the islamist ennahada party along with the acceptance of
people’s verdict accepted with celebrations on both sides points to the fact
that a new dawn of democracy sets in.hongkong umbrella movement,silent man
protests of turkey and arab spring movements are further examples of this
synergy.
This synergy results in pushing towards the path of equality when it
starts to express itself in social sphere.when a race,religion,creed or a group
starts to show or portrait itself as supreme over other group ,then violence is
bound to arise provided leaders like mk Gandhi are not there to guide the path
of disgruntled masses.nothing can be more apt representation of such guidance
than the abolition of untouchability via article 17 in Indian
constitution.similar is the experience of usa where a person from lon oppressed
black race have become president and supreme commander of its armed forces.but
there are still countless cases of inequality where the goal of non vilencee
can be pursued with utmost zeal.inequality of today’s times is coming in the form of digital divide
with clear demarcation in form of internat haves and have nots.the condition of
women is another such sphere of inequality whose social factors has been voiced
in recently started ‘he for she ‘campaign of united nations.
Political democracy and social equality as two cornerstones of the way
of non violence further leads to achievement of objective of economic equality
and most importantly employment to the working age population.as the Indian
phiolosphy mentions that artha or economic well being is required for moksha or
liberation,so is the bitter truth that if the econimc equality is not achieved
then social equality and political democracy becomes a distant dream with
violence becomes a way out for those who lag behind.world of today,in economic
terms,is like some islands of prosperity amidst the ocean of poverty.for
example the case of asia where nearly 50000 people owns about 30% income of
continent or the case of usa where 10% of people holds 50% of wealth of the
country.growth with focus on service sector along with education without any
focus on skilling have resulted in jobless and joyless growth.
The situation becomes quite hopeful and optimistic when non violence
starts expressing itself in the foreign affairs.nation states of today have
become much more mature in reconition of the fact that war don’t determine who
is right but who is left.recent Scotland referendum as well as indo china
resolution to solev border disputes through negotiations are a clear epitome of
this principle but situation is not as rosy as it seems.theatre of violence has
changed from outright wars between countries to the state sponsored terrorism
as well as cyber warfare and espionage.the situation becomes more critical by
the fact that though it was nationalism which resulted in world wars ,its
regionalism which is fuelling today’s low intensity peace time conflicts
deafeating the very purpose of peaceful coexistence which is a foundation for
non violence.
Mk
gandhiji had not seen this coexistence and non violence as only outrer
realities but also as an experience of innerseelf.this means the application of
concept of non violence on the
psychological aspects of mankind.famou historian bipan Chandra had
beautifully explained its meaning when he said that the greatness of gandhiji
didn’t lie in the fact that he himself was hero of independce struggle but he
had the ability to elevate the men and women around him to the stage of
heroship.this means absorbing the idea of non violence and making it the part
and parcel of life so much so that it got expressed in the form of strongness
of one’s character and thoughts.nelson Mandela fondly known as madibo was one
such person who had shown that gandhiann principle of non violence is as much a
reality today as it was when voiced out by mk Gandhi himself.
Though there are
lots of facets of human life where mk gandhi’s article of faith that is non
violence have potential to bring about a major change,yet there are many
problems and obstacles coming in the way of achievement of aims and objectives
of non violence.
Greed of power whether it be political or economical is one such
obstacle which hinders the idea of non violence to gain roots in the minds of
people at large.our history have been full of such incidents.whether it be the
rise of fascism or Nazism in Europe or polpot revolution in combodia or the
rise of military dictatorship in Pakistan ,Myanmar,Egypt ,its always the want
of political and economic power that had propelled regimes to organize
genocides of the opposing groups.some multinational companies in connivance
with states have also been accused of waging violence to gain strong economic
foothold and many African nations r victim of this neo colonialism.
Solution of this problem lies in democracy,effective institution
building as well as presence of checks and balances in the political system of
governance.along with it,the careful use of responsibility to protect principle
by international community along with strong institution at international level
can be an effective stop to this cycle of violence started because of
aspirations of some individuals or groups.succeful Indian democracy experiment
can serve as a lighthouse for world in this respect.
Lack of an effective leadership is also a big obstacle towards the path
of non violence.it means that leadership is either corrupt or inefficient or
ineffective.global south is suffering from this problem more than ever.these
are historical colonies who have not gained in providing a good quality of life
to their citizens after independence.its not astonishing that most of global
poor are living in the continents of south America ,Africa and asia.as there
are three types of capital and those are social capital,economic capital and
cultural capital.global south is rich in all these capitalsand that was a
source of attraction for colonialists but an ineffective leadership have
resulted in non effective use of these capitals.for example the continent of
Africa have 50% of diamond reserves of world and 75% of platinum yet it’s the
poorest continent of world.
Single
most effective solution to problem of leadership comes from the agency of
educationwhich should be focused not only on simple literacy but on universal
primary education.it will result in peope questioning the very existence of
their conditions.minimisation of greed along with education will itself results
in contentment of people at large and so non violence will be the golden aim of
such communities because that will make the way open for them to the path of
improving their quality of life.
Another obstacle towards the aim of mk gandhi’s idea of non violence
comes from he ineffective use of sciene and technology for masses.result is
that though humankind had made strides in science and technology yet the costly
technology is out of reach of common masses which resulted in vicious cycle of
exploitation for example the case for industrial revolution in Europe marked
with significant technology improvements like cotton gin,steam engines etc.yet
the cities get populated with slums on one hand and palaces on the other.such
blatant inequalities are bound to emerge as violent protests and so it happened.russian
revolution was one such protest.science and technology relates with non
violence via simpl concept of increase productivity and its upto effective
leadership that how to divide the increased pie of the growth cake?
Its
answer lies in the focus towards exploration of frugal technology which means
use of science and technology for day to day activities in cost effective
manner.for example the case of kisan call centres and sms schemes in
india.economy of scale has resulted in increase mobile penetration and govt
tapped up this opportunity by setting up kisan call centres from where farmers
can get knowledge of weather conditions ,prices in the market etc.these ideas
bring welfare of the common people and so violence as a mean for achieving ends
get negated.
Another obstacle in the path of mk gandhi’s notable idea of non violence
comes from the ignorance of emerging challenges to mankind.climate change is
one such challenge.gandhiji had forewarned about this condition when he said
–“earth has enough for everybody’s need but not for greed.”but in pursuance of
development ,we have ignored this commandent.conditions have worsened to such
an extent that water wars like standoff bw Egypt and sudan over nile river or
food conflicts like in Somalia are happening now and then.artcic has been
melting from a long time and its ummer ice will be completely gone by 2040 and
tresult is flooding in low lands and so there will be grievances which are
bound to emerge as violent protests.
Its solution lies in the concept of sustainable development which was
accepted by world community but never pursued by all.such type of development
is not a theoretical concept but a treatise of practices followed all around
the globe.like Israel have set up a future commission which looks at the effect
of their today’s policies on future communities or the water management
practice by pune municipality who have made it compulsory that new buildings in
the area has to structure pipes in such a way that used water from activities
of washing utensils or bathing diverted to washrooms and so saving upto 40% of
water consumption.in effect such kind of
development makes the ground fertile for the achievement of non violence in
practice because people will be getting their basic necessities even in coming
times.
Having said that ,it can be observed that principle of non violence has
wide applications in political sphere by way of democracy,in social and
economic sphere by way of equality,in international sphere by means of peace
and in psychological sphere by means of contentment.values of sustainable
development ,good governance,effective leadership ,equitable growth will
catalyse the path towards non violence.
Gandhian concept of non violence is not without its practical
application because gandhian belief itself lies in implementation of ideas and
not only formulation of age old vision and so mk Gandhi had himself given the
method of its implementation and have shown the phases of struggles one has to
endure in its implementation-“first they ignore you.then they laugh at you.then
they fight you and then you win.”
Its hopeful that non violence as the last article of faith and hope for
the creed of humanity will bring the welfare of all whose index will be a
little girl coming out o a school in the hitherto undeveloped area with a smile
on her face and mind sharper than yesterday.
