He said in the Harijan, 5 September1936, “Non-violence is a power which can be wielded equally by all – children, young men and women or grown-up people, provided they have a living faith in the God of Love and have therefore equal love for all mankind. When non-violence is accepted as the law of life, it must pervade the whole being and not be applied to isolated acts”.
Gandhi believed that there are six ‘prerequisites’ that believers in non-violence should follow. The first is that non-violence is the law used by rational beings while brute force is the law of the jungle. The second is that believers in non-violence should also believe in God. The third is that non-violence should be used as a mechanism of defending a person’s self respect but not for the protection of personal property or wealth. The fourth is that non-violence is self-sacrifice and so possession of other people’s property and countries is immoral. The fifth is that non-violence is available for all to use so caste, creed and age are irrelevant but faith in the God of Love is required. Therefore non-violence should be accepted as he law of life. The sixth is that this law of non-violence and love should be applied to the local community as well as all of humanity. He said, “Non-violence is more powerful than all the armaments in the world. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man”. He also said, “There is no cause for which I am prepared to kill”.
He also followed the teaching of satyagraha, meaning the force of truth, or the firmness of truth. He believed that God and Truth were the same thing and that it could be used to fight injustice in the world. He told his followers to meet violence with non-violence as well as non-co-operation and he used these methods in South Africa to fight racial discrimination against Asians and also in India where non-violent protests were used against the British government. He and his followers marched, fasted, went to prison, prayed and called a strike until they convinced the British government and world that India belonged to the people of India. When the Indians began fighting with each other, Gandhi fasted and risked death to make the point that violence leads to more violence and that the only way forward is through non-violence.
Although Gandhi succeeded in removing British rule from India, he was horrified to see the separation of Hindus from Muslims with both groups living in different countries of India and Pakistan respectively. This compassion for all people eventually cost him his life as a Hindu extremist murdered him for loving all people and seeing humanity as one and the whole world as a family. He said, “The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-co-operation with everything humiliating”.
Gandhi also gave some instructions to the follower of his satyagraha movement. The first is that a satyagrahi (civil resister) will cling to anger. The second is that he will suffer the anger of the opponent. The third is that he will never retaliate despite the assaults from the opponent and he will not submit to any order given by the opponent, irrespective of fear of punishment. The fourth is that the civil resister should not resist being arrested by the authorities and he should not resist the removal of his property. The fifth is that if he has any property in his possession, as a trustee he will not surrender it but he cannot retaliate, even though in defence he might be killed. The sixth is that non-retaliation also includes swearing and cursing. The seventh is that the civil resister will never insult his opponent but also never break the law of ahimsa. The seventh is that a civil resister will not salute the Union Jack but will not insult it or officials, English or Indian. The ninth is that if an official is being assaulted, the civil resister will protect the official from the insult or attack, even if that means risking his own life. He said, “Non-violence is not passivity in any shape or form. It is the most active force in the world”.
Gandhi used these two key teachings in practice with the miners’ strikes, the massacre of Amritsar, the salt march and in hampering the British economically by rejecting Western cloth. In all of these demonstrations he used the teachings of ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha (for non-violent protest), which had a profound effect on the people around him. He said, “In non-violence the masses have a weapon which enables a child, woman or even a decrepit old man to resist the mightiest government successfully”.
So Mahatma Gandhi used the beliefs in Hinduism of ahimsa and satyagraha mainly to end the colonial rule by the British in India through means of non-violence. One of his most famous sayings goes “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” and it sums up his key teaching of non-violence.
