E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

60 Contextualising Gandhian ThoughtHe looked at truth as the end and non-violence as the means.The implication of truth being the end was that non-violencewas never to be taken as a tactical line, i.e., as the only policyto meet the exigencies of a situation or to cover up one’sweaknesses. It has got to be taken as the creed, viz., the basicphilosophy of life. At the same time he underlined the pivotalrole of the means (non-violence), if properly tackled, couldeasily take care of the end (the truth).Non-violence and LoveGandhi was firmly of the opinion that a genuine practitionerof ahimsa could proceed only on the basis of deep love in hisheart. By linking ahimsa to love, he tried to underline the factthat the opposition to an adversary is not based on the feeling ofenmity but rather with a deep desire to extend the ‘cup of love’to him. Such a feeling of love was a prerequisite for thepractice of genuine non-violence, lest it becomes a camouflagefor hiding one’s weaknesses as a matter of tactics. As forhimself, Gandhi was so convinced of this feeling of love that healways hoped to hug the entire humanity with a lovingembrace, if not in this life, then in other births.Ahimsa and FearlessnessOne of the seminal contributions of Gandhi was hisrepeated emphasis that ahimsa was not a weapon of the weak,rather it was meant for the brave and stout-hearted. That wasone of the reasons that he differentiated non-violence from theconcept of passive resistance, the latter had come to beidentified as the weapon of the weak. And that is why healways maintained that non-violence could not be practiced byfaint-hearted. In such a situation, he maintained, non-violencecould only work as a smokescreen to hide one’s cowardice andother weaknesses. He established a close linkage between nonviolenceand fearlessness. Hence, he pleaded with thepractitioner of non-violence to give up all kinds of external