Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolent Power in Action

Dennis Dalton

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780231530392
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia dell'Asia

Dennis Dalton's classic account of Gandhi's political and intellectual development focuses on the leader's two signal triumphs: the civil disobedience movement (or salt satyagraha ) of 1930 and the Calcutta fast of 1947. Dalton clearly demonstrates how Gandhi's lifelong career in national politics gave him the opportunity to develop and refine his ideals. He then concludes with a comparison of Gandhi's methods and the strategies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, drawing a fascinating juxtaposition that enriches the biography of all three figures and asserts Gandhi's relevance to the study of race and political leadership in America. Dalton situates Gandhi within the "clash of civilizations" debate, identifying the implications of his work on continuing nonviolent protests. He also extensively reviews Gandhian studies and adds a detailed chronology of events in Gandhi's life.

• CHAPTER ONE

Satyagraha Meets Swaraj: The Development of Gandhi’s Ideas, 1896–1917

None of us knew what name to give to our movement. I then used the term “passive resistance” in describing it: I did not quite understand the implications of ‘passive resistance’ as I called it—I only knew that some new principle had come into being. As the struggle advanced, the phrase “passive resistance” gave rise to confusion … I thus began to call the Indian movement “Satyagraha,” that is to say the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence.

—Gandhi, recalling events of

1906–1907 in South Africa¹

Origins of Satyagraha in South Africa

At least as early as 1896, one may see in Gandhi’s pamphlet, “Grievances of British Indians in South Africa,” the embryo of the method he later called satyagraha: “Our method in South Africa is to conquer this hatred by love…. We do not attempt to have individuals punished but, as a rule, patiently suffer wrongs at their hands.”² But the teaching of the past which he invoked at this time is the “precept of the Prophet of Nazareth, ‘resist not evil’;”³ and the example of the present which he repeatedly praises is that of the British suffragettes.⁴ During this initial period of protest his weekly issues of Indian Opinion recount and extol the lives of Mazzini, Lincoln, Washington, and Lord Nelson as supreme examples of selfless sacrifice in service of their countries.⁵ When he criticized discriminatory government legislation, his worst charge was that the spirit of the laws seemed “un-British.” Until 1906 the striking feature of his ideology is not merely his reliance upon Western examples and values but his dependence on them to the exclusion of anything Indian. The Mahatma, then, began his public career as a loyalist, totally committed to the values and institutions of the British empire.

But Gandhi is not the only example of a political leader who was radicalized in response to unyielding racist authority. Malcolm X was another and the specific reasons for their respective life changes will be compared in chapter 6. In Gandhi’s case the dramatic shift from emulation to rejection of the oppressor came in late 1906, at age thirty-seven, when, as a lawyer trained in London to respect the imperial system, he suddenly realized the futility of working within it. It was then that the first meeting of swaraj and satyagraha occurred and the long relationship began. A small minority of fewer than 100,000 Indians in South Africa said goodbye to conventional political protest and embraced civil disobedience.

On August 22, 1906, the Transvaal Government Gazette published the Draft Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance. This gave notice of new legislation: all Indians, Arabs, and Turks were required to register with the government. Fingerprints and identification marks on the person’s body were to be recorded in order to obtain a certificate of registration. A fine of 100 pounds or three months’ imprisonment could be imposed on those failing to register before a given date. Among the Indians, the ordinance became known as the “Black Act.” Gandhi complained that the new law was not only discriminatory but also profoundly humiliating because Indians were treated as common criminals. After preparing the community through the press, Gandhi called a mass meeting of approximately 3,000 Transvaal Indians on September 11. The famous fourth resolution, prepared by Gandhi, was passed by the meeting. It called for resistance to the Registration Act through civil disobedience, including imprisonment if necessary. Gandhi made clear in moving the resolution that it was different than any passed by the Indians before: “It is a very grave resolution that we are making, as our existence in South Africa depends upon our fully observing it.” He insisted that the action was so serious that it must be sealed by each individual with an oath before God, an unprecedented demand. “If having taken such an oath we violate our pledge we are guilty before God and man.”⁶

Later Gandhi would refer to the events surrounding this meeting as the “advent of satyagraha.” Elements appear here for the first time that became classic components of the method. First there is the causa sine que non, Gandhi’s perception of an injustice as humiliating, depriving Indians of their dignity and self-respect. This is associated with fear and loss of individual autonomy. The remedy of achieving swaraj through satyagraha was conceived in 1906 and its essential ingredients are remarkably clear: the conviction that through a political movement each individual might achieve liberation from fear with a new sense of self-esteem and personal strength, autonomy, what is today called “empowerment.”

The new method of action conceived at that September 11 meeting was initially described as “passive resistance.” Within a year, Gandhi found that term objectionable. In a letter to the editor of the Rand’ Daily Mail dated July, 1907, Gandhi wrote: “It may appear ungrateful to have to criticize your moderate and well-meant leaderette on the so-called ‘passive resistance’ to the Asiatic Registration Act. I call the passive resistance to be offered by the Indian community ‘so-called,’ because, in my opinion, it is really not resistance but a policy of communal suffering.”⁷

By this time, Gandhi had already begun to dislike the term “passive resistance,” since it was a foreign one that implied principles he could not wholly accept. “When in a meeting of Europeans,” he records in Autobiography, “I found that the term ‘passive resistance’ was too narrowly construed, that it was supposed to be a weapon of the weak, that it could be characterized by hatred, and that it could finally manifest itself as violence, I had to demur to all these statements and explain the real nature of the Indian movement.”⁸ His ideal was active nonviolent resistance to injustice. Hatred and violence were incompatible with the method that he had conceived because his theory rested squarely on the principle of ahimsa, which he variously translated as “nonviolence,” “love,” and “charity.” This idea of ahimsa he had taken from the Indian tradition, and particularly the Jain religion where it meant a strict observance of nonviolence.⁹ Gandhi fused his own interpretation of this belief with ideas he found in Tolstoy and the Sermon on the Mount; the result was a principle that evoked rich religious symbolism and contributed to a dynamic method of action unique in Indian history.

Any doubts concerning Gandhi’s conscious attempt to establish continuity with the Indian tradition in his search for a method of action may be dispelled by a look at the way in which he coined the term satyagraha, a word which had not heretofore existed.

To respect our own language, speak it well and use in it as few foreign words as possible…this is also a part of patriotism. We have been using some English terms just as they are, since we cannot find exact Gujarati equivalents for them. Some of these terms are given below, which we place before our readers…. The following are the terms in question: Passive Resistance; Passive Resister; Cartoon; Civil Disobedience …. It should be noted that we do not want translations of these English terms, but terms with equivalent connotations.¹⁰

In this manner, Gandhi announced a contest in Indian Opinion for the renaming of “passive resistance.” The thinking behind this idea of a contest is further explained as he describes the origins of his movement in South Africa: “… the phrase ‘passive resistance’ gave rise to confusion and it appeared shameful to permit this great struggle to be known only by an English name. Again, that foreign phrase could hardly pass as current coin among the community. A small prize was therefore announced in Indian Opinion to be awarded to the reader who invented the best designation for our struggle.”¹¹ Gandhi’s remark here that a “foreign phrase could hardly pass as current coin among the community” is noteworthy; equally significant is his candid admission, noted above, that “I did not quite understand the implications of ‘passive resistance’ as I called it. I only knew that some new principle had come into being.” The “new principle” inspired both new deeds and thoughts and all first found expression in South Africa.

“What Gandhi did to South Africa,” observes one of his biographers, “was less important than what South Africa did to him.”¹² South Africa provided the laboratory for Gandhi’s experiments; it proved an excellent testing ground, since many of the problems he later found in India occurred there in miniature. No Indian had confronted these problems in South Africa before: Gandhi was writing on a clean slate and he was able to try out almost any methods he chose.

Gandhi had formed beliefs before he arrived in South Africa. His Autobiography testifies to the lasting impression of childhood experiences, impressions, and lessons that were to affect the later development of the two ideas that would dominate his thought: truth and nonviolence.¹³ Then almost three years were spent as a law student in London, during which time he discovered the Sermon on the Mount and came to understand the Bhagavad Gita through Sir Edwin Arnold’s English translation.¹⁴ Gandhi recalled that at this time, “My young mind tried to unify the teaching of the Gita, The Light of Asia and the Sermon on the Mount. That renunciation was the highest form of religion appealed to me greatly.”¹⁵ Religious and moral attitudes had thus begun to form in London. But they took definite shape only in South Africa. Moreover, he does not appear to have given any thought at all to political questions before his direct involvement with the problems of the Indian community in Natal. He remarked tersely in 1927, “South Africa gave the start to my life’s mission.”¹⁶ This mission was one of self-realization but before he left South Africa he knew that it must involve a struggle for India’s freedom as well. He had left Bombay for Durban in 1893 as a legal counsel for Dada Abdulla and Company; he returned to India twenty-one years later with a sense of mission, a reservoir of practical experience in social and political reform, and with the ideas that formed the basis of his political thought. That is what South Africa did for Gandhi.¹⁷

Hind Swaraj: A Proclamation of Ideological Independence

The main ideas that emerged from Gandhi’s South African experience are contained in his short work, Hind Swaraj, easily one of the key writings of his entire career.¹⁸ The original text, written in Gandhi’s native language of Gujarati in 1909 during a return voyage from London to South Africa, was first published serially in Gandhi’s newspaper Indian Opinion; later it went through numerous reprints, became a text for the Indian nationalist movement and was occasionally banned by the Government of India. In a significant comment on Hind Swaraj written in 1921, Gandhi stated the purpose behind the book.

It was written … in answer to the Indian school of violence, and its prototype in South Africa. I came in contact with every known Indian anarchist in London. Their bravery impressed me, but I feel that their zeal was misguided. I felt that violence was no remedy for India’s ills, and that her civilization required the use of a different and higher weapon for self-protection. The Satyagraha of South Africa was still an infant hardly two years old. But it had developed sufficiently to permit me to write of it with some degree of confidence… It [Hind Swaraj] teaches the gospel of love in the place of that of hate. It replaces violence with self-sacrifice. It pits soul-force against brute force.¹⁹

The aim of Hind Swaraj was to confront the anarchists and violence-prone Indian nationalists with an alternative to violence, derived from Gandhi’s earliest experiments with satyagraha. Equally important is the book’s concern with the concept from which it takes its title: this is Gandhi’s first extensive statement on swaraj, his idea of freedom. The ideas he sets forth here provide the basis for much of his future thinking on both satyagraha and swaraj and the correspondence drawn between them.

Gandhi had written of swaraj before 1909; but he seldom referred to the term then, and conveyed only a limited awareness of the concept as it was developing in India. The first explicit use of swaraj in Gandhi’s Collected Works occurs with a brief reference to Dadabhai Naoroji’s Congress Presidential Address in 1906 that was cited above, in the introduction. Gandhi wrote in Indian Opinion:

The address by the Grand Old Man of India is very forceful and effective. His words deserve to be enshrined in our hearts. The substance of the address is that India will not prosper until we wake up and become united. To put it differently, it means that it lies in our hands to achieve swaraj, to prosper and to preserve the rights we value…For our part we are to use only the strength that comes from unity and truth. That is to say, our bondage in India can cease this day, if all the people unite in their demands and are ready to suffer any hardships that may befall them.²⁰

These few sentences contain the germs of the concept of freedom that Gandhi was soon to develop; and thirty-four years later he was still admonishing the Congress, and the Indian people, that swaraj “will not drop from heaven, all of a sudden, one fine morning. But it has to be built up brick by brick by corporate self-effort.”

In the months following Naoroji’s address, and before the writing of Hind Swaraj, while Gandhi rarely used the term swaraj he did develop his idea of freedom. Immediately before his departure for London in June 1909, Gandhi had spent three months in a Pretoria prison for civil disobedience. There he read The Gita, Upanishads, and the Bible, as well as Ruskin, Tolstoy, Emerson and Thoreau. He was impressed by Thoreau, and particularly by this passage from On Civil Disobedience: “I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was.”²¹

Gandhi remarked on these lines that the individual who pursues truth through civil disobedience may be imprisoned but “his soul is thus free,” and “taking this view of jail life, he feels himself quite a free being.” He concluded that a right understanding and enjoyment of freedom “solely rests with individuals and their mental attitude.”²² A year later he wrote: “Whilst the views expressed in Hind Swaraj are held by me, I have but endeavoured humbly to follow Tolstoy, Ruskin, Thoreau, Emerson and other writers, besides the masters of Indian philosophy.”²³

When Gandhi left Capetown for London, then, the strands of his ideas on freedom, gleaned from both Indian and Western sources as well as from his own experience, were in his mind. The stimulus for weaving them together into a coherent pattern, and fusing them with a program of social action, came dur...