Pacific PROTEST

That Gandhiji’s ahimsa and satyagraha are powerful and peaceful tools of democratic protest is well brought out in a recently released documentary film on Gandhian methods. SONAL SRIVASTAVA reports

To protest against injustice and that too, in a democratic manner, is an art. And to do so in the face of brutal repression from authoritarian regimes requires courage, gumption and special effort.

According to Gandhiji, ahimsa is the backbone of Satyagraha, the struggle against any kind of injustice. Any violent attempt at getting your point across may jeopardise your efforts, whereas a non-violent struggle can put you on the moral high ground, shaping public opinion in your favour, while putting pressure on the oppressor.

This theme of non-violent protests as potent tools, comes across eminently in a documentary made by Ramesh Sharma. The film titled Ahimsa: Gandhi — The Power Of The Powerless, screened recently at India International Centre, IIC, Delhi, is a tribute to Gandhian Pacifism, at a time when the world is commemorating Gandhiji’s 150th birth anniversary.

Gandhiji’s practice of ahimsa created ripples throughout the world. This is evident in the way reformist-leaders across the globe adapted this philosophy to their own civil rights movements. Martin Luther King Jr adopted Gandhiji’s ideas while spearheading the Civil Rights Movement in the USA; Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity Movement in Poland, was also inspired by Gandhiji’s non-violent action. The Velvet Revolution of Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia, and Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid in South Africa, were heavily influenced by Gandhiji’s ideas.

“Gandhi has been seen in tokens. The younger generation needs to take a closer look at his methods. Sometimes, a film inspires you to learn a little more,” says Sharma, pointing out that one of the greatest things about Gandhiji’s spirituality is that though as a Hindu, he read the Bhagwad Gita and wrote about it, he also read the Bible and wrote about the Sermon on the Mount.

“He was one of those few political leaders who believed in the goodness of every religion. He would begin his prayer meetings with quotations from every religion,” says Sharma, recalling that at the university established by Gandhi in Gujarat, there is a Saturday Room where he used to teach from the Bible on Saturdays. He says, that books of every religion can be found in that room and that is what Gandhiji’s spirituality is about. “It is about being a good Christian, a good Muslim, a good Jain and that’s what Gandhiji believed in,” says Sharma.

Rajiv Mehrotra, trustee-secretary, Foundation for Universal Responsibility of HH The Dalai Lama, who was instrumental in organising the film screening recently at IIC, Delhi, talks about the techniques Gandhiji employed for mind training to enable people to resist violence.“The genius of our civilisational heritage is that spirituality is not something out there; it’s inside us. Our culture offers the most sophisticated mind-training techniques to enable us to internalise spirituality so that it manifests spontaneously into external action. That’s what Gandhiji was doing when he trained 79 volunteers for the Dandi March to not react to violence. Now, think about not reacting to someone hitting you — unless you have deeply internalised it, you can’t control that impulse purely intellectually,” Mehrotra says.

“Gandhiji used the vocabulary and structures of Hinduism for his own evolution and his own understanding of the nature of reality. He embodies the values for all faiths. His greatest strength was his transparency,” he adds.

Gandhiji’s ideas and practices not only informed the Indian freedom struggle, they mobilised thousands of ordinary Indians and got them out of their comfort zones. Not just that, as a wily politician, Gandhiji also kept the British colonial masters on their toes. The title ‘Mahatma’ has been questioned by some due to Gandhi’s fierce involvement in the physical and political world, which, they say, meant that he was not the spiritual mahatma, not a messiah, but a wily politician who used spiritual tools as means to an end.

Political psychologist and social theorist, Ashis Nandy, responds to this point of view: “I call him Gandhi only. This use of ‘ji’ and ‘mahatma’ is a cover to marginalise him; it is false allegiance to say that you are great but you are not for our times.”
In contrast, Mehrotra says, “Gandhi is a mahatma, because of motivations that propelled him to do what he did.”
He explains, “Here was a selfless man who worked through the Independence of India only to renounce the power that could have come to him. A politician works to acquire power. But Gandhi was using spiritual power for public good.” According to Mehrotra, a mahatma is mahan atman, a great soul. A soul is one’s interior universe, and this is what Gandhi sought to purify. Ramesh Sharma says, “A politician of today is like a ruler. Gandhi never saw himself as ruler; he was with the people. He believed in an inclusive society and sustainable living.”

Often, Gandhi’s critics say that his methods succeeded because he was up against the more liberal British and that any other ruthless rulers would have squashed a satyagraha.

“In the latter case, Gandhi’s methods may have taken a longer time. Gandhi said that it is the people’s cooperation that allows a regime to succeed. It is the people who have to unite. It’s inside you — the capacity to say ‘no’ to an unjust society,” says Sharma, responding to the query on the efficiency of Gandhian methods in, for example, Nazi Germany.

Nandy recalls, “The British response to Satyagraha was not good at all; they were ruthless and inconsiderate. Even on unarmed people who were merely marching against them, they used arms. Satyagraha always had a backup team of medicos. Secondly, it is just not true that it could have only succeeded under the British. It succeeded against the racial regime in South Africa. It stood against the new kind of revolutionary power, Soviet Union; it even succeeded against American presidency, the world’s most powerful State.

“Gandhi’s idea of non-violence is not frozen in time,” says Mehrotra, recollecting the Dalai Lama’s wisdom that there is nothing inherently right or wrong with the use of violence for it is the motivation behind the violence that really matters.

THE GREATEST THINGS ABOUT GANDHIJI’S SPIRITUALITY IS THAT THOUGH AS A HINDU, HE READ THE BHAGWAD GITA AND WROTE ABOUT IT, HE ALSO READ THE BIBLE AND WROTE ABOUT THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT■