Each year since 1901 the Norwegian Storting has selected, via an elected five member Committee, a person or organization as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Ninety-five individuals and twenty organizations have received this particular peace prize. Not included in this list is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948). The reasons for being nominated five times but never been awarded it are open to discussion. More important for me is that regardless of whether or not he was recognized by being a peace prize awardee, it does not change the fact that Gandhi was a twentieth century messenger of peace. Peace which leads to personal and political freedom; peace that was to be acquired through the twin principles of truth and non-violence. It was the person, the very being of Gandhi that has outlived any memory of his being an almost-laureate.Admittedly, Gandhi’s nation was bitterly defeated in its search for independence through solely peaceful means; however, in August 1947 two nations were born and both remember him as the mighty diminutive person who inspired and led millions to challenge the British Empire with the power of ‘truth-force’, Satyagraha. Pithily said, it was the strength of Gandhi’s convictions that endured. What is unarguable is a general agreement amongst us at this moment in history, and best embodied in Albert Einstein’s words, “Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”From whence came Gandhi’s strength of conviction? It was the land, its beliefs, and the socio-econo-political realities of being raised in a British colony, and then struggling against that colonial status, that cast powerful influences on him. India, the colony, was merely a hundred years (or so) old when Gandhi was born. But the land and its peoples had lived through history of thousands of years, through peace and violence, growth and stasis, assimilations and invasions, and through various religio-cultural stimuli, Jain, Buddhist, ‘Hindu’, Muslim. It was the complex cultural milieu of the land that Gandhi absorbed into his being and life. To become an advocate of ‘purna swarajya’, that is, total independence, individual, spiritual, and political, Gandhi’s ideas evolved over time through his experiences as a lawyer in Natal, South Africa and then as a member of the Indian National Congress.Gandhi did not invent the idea of non-violence (ahimsa) or Truth; in his own words, “Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.” However, he lived a life that constantly searched for Truth, for the individual, the collective, the nation. He committed his life to this search for Truth. For the colony, its Truth lay in independence of its peoples; it was to be achieved through non-violent means. He believed in them—advocated and practiced them; was jailed for them, and then was eventually assassinated for them. In his extensive An Autobiography: the Story of My Experiments with Truth (1929), a close reader can ascertain the struggle that the Self must undergo in this search for Truth, the moderation of behaviour required in this pursuit, and the high degree of self-reflection demanded of us as we cultivate our beings. Despite the contradictions that surround Gandhi, his political philosophy and the realpolitik choices he made, it would be erroneous to question his commitment to Truth, and the ethical-moral attitudes that he had inculcated. He is called the Mahatma (Great Soul) for the ways in which he elevated the Self through his close textual readings of others before him, religious and secular.
A prolific writer, Gandhi was also a copious reader. In his incessant search for Self betterment, Gandhi sought direction from, amongst others, the Bhagvad Gita, the Holy Bible, Quran Sharif, the life of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), Tolstoy, Thoreau, Ruskin. His ‘true north’ remained the Bhagavad Gita. Gandhi was a deeply religious man, with a catholic view on and about religions. As a young child he was influenced by his mother’s devotions to Vaishnavism; he grew up in the Porbander area affected deeply by Jainism, a religion singularly devoted to ideas of non-violence. But Gandhi was not prone to determinisms. Gandhi’s contributions to the fifty-year span of India’s freedom struggle was a result of his own sense of morality, of just and unjust laws, his questioning the moral authority (or lack thereof) of the colonial enterprise, his sometimes incongruous political stances; but above all, it was his unwavering ability to take the moral high road in any righteous struggle, be it against an unjust and exploitative presence of a foreign power in his land, or social injustices against groups of people, or whether it was his own worldly desires.
Gandhi was a Hindu to the core of his being, insofar as his personal religio-spiritual paradigm is concerned; however, such was his devotion to Truth that he questioned Hinduism’s moral Achilles heel, ‘untouchability’. Gandhi challenged the social injustice that placed an entire group of people on the margins of society as a result of their accident of birth. Referring to them as Harijan (God’s People), Gandhi applied the tenets of Truth and struggle against Ignorance (as noted in the Gita) to Hindus first. His critique did not question the foundations of the faith, but the systemic social manifestations of difference, exploitation, injustice, and ridicule claiming legitimacy from faith. If anything, Gandhi’s call for social justice in re ‘untouchables’ asked Hindus to live up to the best of being Hindu. (As a sign of having made progress towards Gandhi’s struggle, Indians have dropped the word ‘untouchables’ from our vocabulary and replaced it with Dalit, a self-descriptor by the peoples born as Dalits.) His critique of the social system lay in the belief that “There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot continue to be untruthful, cruel, and incontinent, and claim to have God on his side.” By extrapolation, the violation of anyone’s sensibilities is antithetical to the principles of Truth; a lesson for all times that Gandhi has left for us.
A true believer and practitioner of his faith, Gandhi was not limited by it. His mentalité, the arc of his worldview was far more inclusive: “I am also a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, and a Jew.” Figuratively speaking, Gandhi was embodying the socio-religious reality of the land in which he lived. An influence on Gandhi’s life was his reading of Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) life. In a 1924 publication of Young India, Gandhi wrote:
“I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind…. I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet’s biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.”
Gandhi’s knowledge and study of Islam operated on at least two levels: the first was his Self-growth. In his autobiography, Gandhi speaks of various religions, their prophets, and their teachings at length. About Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) he said, “The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all mankind.” In the end, for Gandhi it was his search for Truth via the roads of wisdom, the signs for which were to be found in several places, if only one looked. His other persuasion to learn about Islam was to understand the millions of Indians with whom he shared a common historical heritage. In the latter regard, Gandhi’s agreement to the partition of India is held as one of his failures. Whatever our position on Pakistan and India, it happened. The story is long, complex, fraught with political machinations, imbued with nationalistic sentiment; to place the responsibility of partition on Gandhi’s doorstep is disingenuous at best. He was no enemy of Islam or the Muslims; his agreeing to partition and the unbelievable violence which ensued in the weeks and months preceding and after earned him first, acute heartbreak at the tragedy and then next, he was at the receiving end of an assassin’s bullet in January 1948.
What, then, is so remarkable about the man that we remember him, today, at this moment in time? His achievement was his life. His life of faith. His existence of simplicity. His arsenal updated with newer and subtler meanings of truth, peace, and non-violence. His personal struggle towards righteousness mirrored in his political campaigns. His belief in the inherent goodness of people. His love for all peoples, regardless of colour, place, or religion. His unshakeable belief in Truth. Above all, he was a human being, frail, imperfect, and flawed. In total, a remarkable human, a human for all times. “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.”
In the last analysis, it is immaterial whether we agree with Gandhi’s modus operandi of pacifism; or if we are religious or secular; whether we see satyagraha as a potentially useful method of seeking resolutions to the geopolitical tensions that ask us to rise towards the most excellent, the arête, within us; or whether we join the ranks of those who remain wedded to the Gandhian principles of existence, living as he imagined would be the appropriate way. His being remains an inspiration, his person worthy of respect, and his life intriguing enough to be studied, learnt about, and perhaps followed. Whatever the angle of analytical and intellectual analysis we choose to apply for Gandhi, a single binding universal belief about Gandhi ought to be, in Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, acted and inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony.” Gandhi’s legacy is measured not by his estates and wealth, for he left behind none, but his riches are the principles of peace, truth, and non-violence. Millions have embraced and practiced these ideals in their pursuit of self-actualization; Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Lanza del Vasto, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Aung San Suu Kyi are the few that we know about.
By: Jyoti K. Grewal,Professor of History.
College of Arts and Sciences,
Zayed University Abu Dhabi/Dubai. United Arab Emirates