The Essence of Non-Violence

Today the world will mark its first ‘International Day of Non-Violence’, as declared in
the UN General Assembly resolution earlier this year, to honor the greatest champion of
non-violence the world has known: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi, as he is widely known, was born this day 138 years ago, in India,
where his birthday is celebrated every year as a national holiday, and where he will
forever be revered as the ‘Father of The Nation’. Even though he was a prolific writer,
writing letters to newspapers and individuals practically every day to clarify some point
or the other, his contemporaries, even those closest to him, found it difficult to understand
him fully.

While others around him would be desperate to find a way to obtain freedom from the
British rule, he would be more interested in ensuring freedom from poverty for the
peasants. He was a lawyer educated in Britain, and had plenty of job offers from wealthy
Indians, who were willing to pay him whatever salary he could wish for. Yet, Gandhi,
rejecting all such offers, spent hours trying to spin cotton into yarn, and advocated
spinning as a means to alleviating the sufferings of the millions of unemployed Indians
living in extreme poverty. His friends could not understand why he could not take up a
part-time job to earn good money and then use that money as he wished to help the poor.
He wanted to teach the poor to be self-reliant. Instead of depending on charity, he wanted
the masses to earn their own money and thus be independent financially.

Most incomprehensible of all was his teachings on non-violence. He would say that his
life was not worth living if he could not preach non-violence. He was ready to give his
life for many causes, but there was no cause for which he was willing to take a life. Not
only did non-violence mean not killing, but it also meant not offending, and not harboring
unkind thoughts in connection with our opponents, not even considering them as
‘enemies’, even though they may consider themselves to be our enemies and may
therefore deal with us unkindly.

Gandhi tried to show us the futility of fighting violence with more violence. Depending
on which side you look from, a suicide-bomber may appear a terrorist or a martyr.
Whether the senseless violence and destruction was perpetrated in the name of
Democracy or Tyranny, it would make no difference to the orphans, widows, and other
victims of such violence. An eye for an eye would render the whole world blind, taught
Gandhi.

Non-violence meant that we must not return a blow for a blow. This much was
understandable. But Gandhi went further and taught that we must not resent the action of
the so-called ‘enemy’ who considers it necessary to torment us. A true follower of non-
violence should not harbor any thoughts of revenge. He cannot, in retaliation, wish for
some harm to visit his attacker. This was as difficult to understand, as it was to put into
practice.

Gandhi repeatedly said that it needed great courage to practice non-violence. But people
could not understand how passive submission to torture could be viewed as courageous.
Gandhi’s path of non-violence was paved with Truth, Love, and Fearlessness. He taught
that to have the courage to be non-violent, we first needed to conquer our own fears. One
needed courage to speak the truth, to stand up for what one believed in, and to face
criticisms. In this connection, we are reminded of the frail and pretty Aung Sang Suu Kyi
of Myanmar, who, in this present-day turbulence, is quietly following the principles
taught by Gandhi. In her famous 'Freedom from Fear' speech of 1990, she proposed that it
was not ‘power’ but ‘fear’ that corrupted men. Those who had power, feared losing it, and
those who were powerless feared the scourge of those in power. “The quintessential
revolution is that of the spirit…” she said. “ People who would build a nation in which
strong democratic institutions are firmly established… must first learn to liberate their
own minds from apathy and fear.”

Suu Kyi has suffered silently for many years. She has been under house arrest, she missed
being with her husband in his last moments, and she continues to be denied the company
of her children. She could have avoided all these by just agreeing to leave her country
and going on permanent exile. But her frailty is merely a cover for her immense inner
strength. She has sacrificed her comforts to stand by her people as they try to liberate
themselves from tyranny. She exemplifies the courage that is needed to be non-violent.
Non-violence is not merely a virtue of negatives. It involves as much of doing good, as
much as the refusal to do harm. It involves supreme kindness and supreme self-sacrifice.

Gandhi was not afraid to put his principles of non-violence into practice. Although he
was opposed to the idea of the British ruling India, his attitude towards the Englishmen
was of utter friendliness and respect. He would argue his case with them, he would
disagree with them, he would not cooperate with them; but he would never hate them. He
believed that if you expressed your love truly and in all sincerity towards your so-called
enemy, then your gesture is bound to move your opponent’s conscience, and he would
want to return that love to you.

The essence of non-violence lies in the concept of suffering injury without retaliation.
Not because you are week, or incapable, but because you do not harbor any desire for
retaliation. Gandhi believed that heroic endurance, borne meekly and silently, would
profoundly move the human heart. The pain of such suffering is not in vain. As the poet
William Blake wrote, a tear is an intellectual thing, a sigh is the sword of the angel King;
and the bitter groan of a martyr’s woe is an arrow from the Almighty’s bow.