Essential Components of Gandhi's Nonviolence

                                                  International Fellowship Program on

Nonviolence and Peace

IFPNP-2

                                                                                          Study Material - 2

 Essential Components of Gandhi's Nonviolence 

1. Human beings are a mixture of animal, humane and divine.  Gandhi emphasized on the divine element in human beings.

 2. Anthropological studies suggest human beings exist today due to cooperation and adaptability. Cooperation is normal; violence is disruption of this normality.

3. In the case of justificatory violence, the  basic question is who or which group justifies the violence?

4. Achieving peace through violence bounds to maintain peace only through violence.  Then there is no way to come out of the vicious circle of violence. Thus to use violence strategically is incorrect for achieving peace.

5.  It is essential to differentiate between Strategic nonviolence propounded by Gene Sharp and principled nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi.

6. While emphasizing strategic nonviolence  Gene Sharp identified 198 methods of nonviolent action in his work “The Politics of Nonviolent Action” “published in three volumes in 1973.

7. Idea of nonviolence is present in all religions. It is basically a personal virtue in all religions.

8. Gandhi’s contribution was extending nonviolence  from a personal virtue to the public realm which can be employed by people on a massive scale in their  fights against injustice perpetrated to them.

9. Nonviolence is a cohesive force that holds human life together. It is not merely a value rather   the law of our being or existence.

10. Nonviolence is not a passive force.  It is an active force, superior to all the forces put together.

11. Force of nonviolence can be used in two modes: Reconstruction of society, in Gandhian terminology it is called   “Constructive Programme “and Resistance to all forms of injustice.

12. Nonviolence is ultimately a way of life and not merely a method of combat.  It is   an attitude towards individuals, society and nature.

13. Achieving a peaceful society demands application of nonviolence in every aspect of life.

14. It necessarily involves the restructuring of social, economic and political organizations on the basis of nonviolence.

15. Economy and polity would be decentralized and participatory when it is restructured on nonviolent lines.

  Based on the presentation of  Prof. Prem Anand Mishra , Dean , Faculty of Gandhian Studies, Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad