about non-violence

[swatkat]

On this day, 51 years ago, M.K.Gandhi was shot dead by a man who disagreed with his idea of an India without religious conflict.

I 'discovered' Gandhi a couple of years ago—through coursework, of all things. It was something of a revelation. And I do not use this word very lightly—it was a revelation. Here was a man—in a colonized nation—who talked about 'lasting peace', with such confidence, such firmness, such belief. It was almost too good to be true, too far-fetched for one to really comprehend—children of violence that we are, growing up under the shadow of war, of such fierce hate.

You might be wondering why I had to 'discover' him a couple of years ago. There are two distinct poles in which Gandhi is comprehended today in his own country: on one end he will be worshipped, his every word a mantra in itself; and on the other he is a figure to be mocked and derided, because he was, you see, a shrewd, effeminate and rather irritating old man. The first group puts him on a pedestal and keeps him there, while going about business as usual. For the second, it's fashionable to mock Gandhi. For both, knowing what he had to say and engaging with it critically is seldom an option. It's easier to worship or deride, after all. And so I grew up like that, forming my ideas of the foolish old man from the mainstream discourse where it is fashionable to laugh at his effeminacy and crack jokes about his 'experiments' and be angry about how he 'allowed' the Partition to happen. Until a couple of years ago, that is.

After that first earth-shaking encounter, I read more. Almost obsessively. I read his writings, I read history and what historiographers had to say about his politics, I read critiques. I devoured them. I learnt that I completely disagree on a number of things about Gandhi's politics, on the tactics he used and the ideas he preached, but you know what? When it comes to some very important things—things that make us human, things that make the world worth living in: he was right. He got it RIGHT. And it is convenient for our contemporary discourse to demonize him and mock him for his 'effeminate' espousal of non-violence (and maybe occasionally patronisingly discuss that quaint old man who was so out of touch with times—in fashionable circles, wearing khadi and chappals), because then we can justify things like our trigger-happy 'security' forces and our warmongering governments and the entire war industry, because then we can justify our own selfishness and our willful blindness, our inaction.

So as you go about your work today, eating and drinking and earning money and taking care of your own, think about him a little. Think about that crazy old man who took his 'experiments with truth' to unbelievable extremes, who may not always have been an ideal leader or the 'saint' he is claimed to be today—but who got some of the very important things right.

We could use some voices like his today.

Comments

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

what would you recommend as reading material? <3 i'm curious about him but i've never known where to start reading.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It's very difficult to say where to begin - Gandhi was a very verbose man who almost obsessively wrote things down, and there's *so much* of it. Hind Swaraj is a very early text, where you'll the beginnings of ideas that later become very important to his politics. There's an edition available online (here (http://www.mkgandhi.org/swarajya/coverpage.htm)), and in case you're looking for a book there's an excellent edition edited by Anthony Parel (it's Cambridge University Press,I think), which also contains some of his other writings. Most of works exist in random compilations put together by publishers - I'd recommend reading whatever you can get your hands on! For secondary work, there's this interesting book by David Hardiman (http://www.amazon.com/Gandhi-His-Time-Ours-Global/dp/0231131143) which might help to serve as an overview. Then there have been excellent works by contemporary historians, which you may delve into you're more familiar with things.

[roga.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask too, so thanks.

[hihoplastic.livejournal.com]

Same, I was going to ask as well. Thank you for the recs; I will definitely add them to my list and try to get to them soon. Thank you for the beautiful post. ♥

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot his autobiography: My Experiments with Truth.

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

<3

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

♥

[jaybee65.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, it's a positive -- even important! -- thing that he wasn't a saint. Saints are unapproachable: ordinary mortals can't expect to emulate them, so why bother trying? But a fallible, maybe even sometimes wrongheaded human being who still stood for something important? That doesn't leave any excuse for the rest of us to wriggle out of responsibility.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Saints are unapproachable: ordinary mortals can't expect to emulate them, so why bother trying?

That's why it's so convenient to brand him a saint and leave him on his pedestal. Because otherwise? You have to think about the things he talked about about and campaigned for all his life, and that is rather inconvenient.

[ms-artisan.livejournal.com]

You're a very sensible woman, I admire your enquiring mind. And yes, we hear far too much from the warmongers and not enough from the thinking peacemakers. Mediocre minds are very big on the violent opposition.

(on a totally unrelated note I have bought, and been using, curry leaves and I love their citrusy flavour very much :)

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

And yes, we hear far too much from the warmongers and not enough from the thinking peacemakers

Word.

(mmm curry leaves - aren't they awesome? *salivates*)

[ms-artisan.livejournal.com]

They are! They so are, and I have you to thank for my new-found love. :) My only problem is that so far I can only find the dried version. I'm not sure if that's because no one grows curry trees over here or because I'm not looking in the right place. But I'm on a mission -- I will conquer!

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

We used to have a tree in our backyard, and every now and then my mother would ask me to pluck a few for her. Oh, maybe you should plant one! Hee.

And now you must eat coconut milk prawn curry. Your life is incomplete if you haven't eaten it.

[ms-artisan.livejournal.com]

Oooo, recipe? I was given a spice book for Christmas, so I'm on a very steep spice/curry learning curve. It's much fun.

[sajia.livejournal.com]

The fear of effeminacy. That's always been our biggest fear, isn't it?
It hasn't helped that modern straight white male culture has such a narrow, frat-boy idea of what straightness should look like, and of course Asians, Latinos and Middle Eastern men don't fit the mold.
Some years ago I wanted to write about how Bengali men have for a long time been stigmatized as effeminate, and how the 1971 Independence War ( I refuse to call it the Indo-Pak war) on one hand was a proving ground for Bangladeshi masculinity, and on the other hand damaged it even further because of the trauma of the rape atrocities.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

The fear of effeminacy. That's always been our biggest fear, isn't it?

Word. And also another 'word' on the stigmatization of Bengali men as effeminate. It started right at the time of Macauley (he describes Bengal as a land where men are like women - I wish I could get my hands on the exact quote).

the 1971 Independence War ( I refuse to call it the Indo-Pak war)

Indians will often very high-handedly call it the war of 'liberation' of Bangladesh. And then wonder why we're not particularly popular out there.

[delle.livejournal.com]

I love this, and I love you and I love reading your perspective on life and history and events. Because even though I'm well educated by American standards, that simply means I can recite dates and facts of American history, very little of the rest of the world. Of course I know who Ghandi was, but I know so very very little of that time period in India's history, and of your current culture and historical perspective on your own past.... I need to read more. This is fascinating (and educational, altho it's not on YOU to educate ME) and I loved reading this. Thank you!

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed reading this! I could say the same about American history, and I benefit a lot from reading everyone's posts about things.

(also, Gandhi, please - Ghandi is common misspelling, and it drives me nuts *g*)

[sk56.livejournal.com]

I had to smile at your description of the two views -- when Richard Attenborough was making his film, there were still many people around who had known Gandhi personally, and they all had something to say. One woman, who I think you would put in the deification camp, strenuously objected to laying out G’s more human attributes -- she felt very strongly that his spiritual impact was the important thing, and that he reminded her of nothing so much as a powerful ray of light. Attenborough's response was that he wasn't going to make a film about "a bloody Tinkerbell."

You've put your finger on an important point, though, with your observation that both the responses you outline discount the importance of the person in history and in the development of human relations. But I think that is a very typical human response -- goodness makes us nervous. Not the gooey goodness of most sanitized religious expression or the exploitive goodness of "we've got your best interests at heart" that is the tool of many effective politicians, but the actual goodness of people who don't really see why things should be any other way. We call them naive, or childish, or saint-like -- we try to marginalize them or compartmentalize them, because they make us uneasy. To borrow the current phrase, the really do speak truth to power, and power gets edgy about it.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Attenborough's response was that he wasn't going to make a film about "a bloody Tinkerbell."

Hee! However, I can't get over the fact that they couldn't find a single Indian actor worthy of playing Gandhi's role? Seriously? (even though Kingsley's father was a Kenyan of Indian descent)

but the actual goodness of people who don't really see why things should be any other way. We call them naive, or childish, or saint-like -- we try to marginalize them or compartmentalize them, because they make us uneasy.

Yes, exactly.