Gandhi and Conflict Resolution

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it”

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in the coastal town of Porbandar, one of scores of tiny princely states and now part of the Indian state of Gujarat. His entire life was taken up struggling against social injustices such as racial discrimination in South Africa, British rule in India and hideous social practices his own society. Gandhi wondered how a moral person should face such struggles. Traditionally people have relied on rational discussion and violence, which has commonly be called the ‘body-force’. Gandhi found both methods unsatisfactory in varying degrees, and explored one that relied on the hitherto untapped ‘soul-force’ or ‘truth-force’ which is also known as Satyagraha.

According to Gandhi, reason was the most accurate method of resolving issues but reason did not come to human beings with ease. Every individual is a product of a complex interplay of societal influences, pressures, perceptions and prejudices. If an individual did not have concern for another, he would not solve a conflict with them reasonably. Similarly, an individual’s reason may also be clouded by dogmas, orthodoxy and self concern. When conflicts cannot be solved with rationality they lead to a violent resolution. Some individuals took a purely instrumental view of violence, and thought it fully justified if it produced the desired results. Others agreed it was morally undesirable, but justified it when it was likely to result in the elimination of a greater evil. Gandhi was particularly disturbed by the ease with which violence had been rationalized and used throughout history. He was completely against violence and therefore wanted to develop a means of initiating and achieving social change through peaceful means.

The new method to resolve conflict should revitalise the soul, activate the individual’s latent moral energies, appeal to both the head and the heart, and create a climate conducive to peaceful resolution of conflict conducted in a spirit of mutual goodwill. Gandhi thought that his method of satyagraha met this requirement. He first discovered and tried it out during his campaigns against racial discrimination in South Africa, and kept perfecting it in the course of his struggles against British rule in India and the unjust practices of his own society. For Gandhi satyagraha, meaning civil insistence on or tenacity in the pursuit of truth, aimed to penetrate the barriers of prejudice, ill-will, dogmatism, self-righteousness, and selfishness, and to reach out to and activate the soul of the opponent. However degenerate or dogmatic a human being might be, he had a soul, and hence the capacity to feel for other human beings and acknowledge their common humanity. Satyagraha was a ‘surgery of the soul’, a way of activating ‘soul-force’. For Gandhi ‘suffering love’ was the best way to do this, and formed the inspiring principle of his new method. As he put it:

“I have come to this fundamental conclusion that if you want something really important to be done, you must not merely satisfy the reason, you must move the heart also. The appeal of reason is more to the head, but the penetration of the heart comes from suffering. It opens up the inner understanding in man. Suffering is the badge of the human race, not the sword.”

Gandhi’s satyagraha has certain basic principles. Satyagraha was to be preceded by a careful study of the situation, patient gathering of facts, a reasoned defence of the objectives, a popular agitation to convince the opponent of the intensity of the satyagrahi’s feeling, and an ultimatum to give him a last chance for negotiation. Throughout the satyagraha, the channels of communication with the opponent were kept open, the attitudes on either side were not allowed to harden, and intermediaries were encouraged. The satyagrahi was required to take a pledge not to use violence or to resist arrest or confiscation of his property. Similar rules were laid down for the satyagrahi prisoner, who was expected to be courteous, to ask for no special privileges, to do as he was ordered, and never to agitate for conveniences ‘whose deprivation does not involve any injury to his self-respect’.

Although Gandhi continued to maintain that suffering love was omnipotent and, when pure, capable of ‘melting even the stoniest hearts’, he knew that reality was quite different. Most satyagrahis were ordinary human beings whose tolerance, love, determination, and ability to suffer had obvious limits, and their opponents were sometimes too prejudiced and callous to be swayed by their suffering. Not surprisingly, Gandhi was led to introduce such other forms of pressure as economic boycott, non-payment of taxes, non-cooperation, and hartal (cessation of work), none of which relied on the spiritual power of suffering love alone. His vocabulary too became increasingly aggressive. He began to talk of ‘non-violent warfare’, ‘peaceful rebellion’, a ‘civilized form of warfare’, a ‘war bereft of every trace of violence’, and ‘weapons’ in the ‘armoury’ of the satyagrahi, all intended to ‘compel’ and ‘force’ the opponent to negotiate. As was to be expected, Gandhi’s political realism triumphed over his moral idealism, and, despite his claims to the contrary, his satyagrahas were not always purely spiritual in nature. In addition to these and other methods, Gandhi introduced the highly controversial method of fasting.

When interpersonal conflicts arise, between parties having differing levels of authority, there are two usual ways of resolving these conflicts- first, authoritarian-parties may try to impose their will on the other party. Second, permissive one of the parties gives in. The former may produce resentment and hostility in the loser, require heavy enforcement, foster dependence and submission out of fear and make the winner feel guilty. The latter may foster feeling of guilt and helplessness in the loser and lack of respect for the loser in the winner. Only the cooperative approach of Satyagraha avoids such negative outcomes. In it, one minds one’s own behaviour more than the opponent’s and tries to grasp the opponent’s viewpoint. Where there is apparent collision of values or beliefs, one must be a model for one’s own value system and try to become more accepting of the different value systems.

In relation to conflicts among nations, Gandhi said, “While all violence is bad and must be condemned in the abstract, it is permissible for, it is even the duty of, a believer in Ahimsa to distinguish between the aggressor and the defender. Side with the defender in a nonviolent manner’ because, the [violent] defence has to resort to all the damnable things that the enemy does, and then with greater vigour if it has to succeed.” A satyagrahi “fights” by engaging in a “war without weapons”, aiming at the conversion of the opponent. Modern war technology, particularly nuclear weapons, tends to make the concept of ‘defence’ obsolete. The only remedy is to eliminate the source of conflicts that would lead a nation to the use of arms. This approach relies on conciliation, unilateral steps towards disarmament and a truth-seeking foreign policy backed up with ‘civilian defence’ if an invasion should nevertheless occur.

Although Gandhi’s satyagraha had its limitations and he was wrong to claim ‘sovereign efficacy’ for it, it is a powerful, novel, and predominantly moral method of social change. Gandhi’s theory of satyagraha, which goes right to the heart of his theory of human nature, was a highly original and creative contribution to theories of social change and political action. He was right to stress the limits of rational discussion and the dangers of violence, and explore new forms of political practice that broke through the narrow straitjacket of the reason–violence dichotomy. Satyagraha took full account of the rational and moral nature of human beings and stressed the value of rational discussion and moral persuasion.

Megha Singh

Intern, Asia in Global Affairs

15^th August 2018

Reference

1. Bhiku Parekh, Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction, New York : Oxford university Press Inc., 1997
2. Anne Schraff , Mahatma Gandhi, California : Saddleback Educational Publishing, 2008